Cumbernauld enjoy 5-try spree

For those Cumbernauld players who decided to “party” on Friday night thinking that the following day’s game would not take place because of the weather conditions, the decision by Uddingston Rugby Club that their pitch was indeed playable must have come as a bit of a shock. Any lack of appropriate preparation was not immediately observable as Cumbernauld took the game to their opponents from the off and were unlucky not to record an early try, a forward pass denying the Badgers first blood. The marauding visitors were not denied for long when Andrew Logan, Cumbernauld hooker, scored in the corner after some good handling involving backs and forwards. An early feature of Cumbernauld’s performance was the driving play of wing forward Grant Cowie who was relentless in attack and unlucky to score on a number of occasions. It fell to stand-off Andrew Reid to add to Cumbernauld’s score when he brilliantly intercepted an Uddingston just inside his own half and ran fully 60 yards to score his team’s second try. At this point the partying effect took over and Beanzy had to spend several moments re-arranging the contents of his stomach. Unfortunately from the resultant Uddingston kick-off, Cumbernauld mis-handled and were pressured into conceding a penalty which Uddingston immediately ran to score a converted try. This only made Cumbernauld more determined and their efforts were rewarded when Ross Cowie scored in the corner following a quick tap penalty and a great feed from Ruaridh Clark, making the half time score 17-7 in Cumbie’s favour.
In the second half Cumbernauld extended their lead when Grant Cowie scored during the period when Uddingston’s wing forward and best player had been yellow-carded. As in the 2 previous matches against this young, plucky Uddingston XV, the home team never gave up and only a great tackle from Captain Ruaridh Clark denied Uddingston a try. This only stiffened Cumbernauld’s resolve to finish off their eager rivals and following a steal from the Uddingston scrum, Jordan Reid fed Gavin Calder to power over for the fifth and final try, with Andrew Reid’s subsequent conversion making the score 29-7 only for Uddingston to steal a late try to close the game at 29-12 for the New Town outfit. Cumbernauld coaches were naturally delighted with the nature of the win and the achievement of another bonus point as a result of scoring 4 or more tries as they look forward to hosting Cambuslang at Auchenkilns on Saturday. The man-of-the-match award was closely contested between Grant Cowie for his rampaging play at open-side wing forward, a performance which was matched by that of his fellow back-row player, Kevin McTier, who had an outstanding game at blindside wing forward as he constantly disrupted and spoiled any promising Uddingston possession. As ever, players are reminded that training takes place at Auchenkilns on Tuesday and Thursday at 6.45 for a prompt 7 pm start.