Victory keeps Dalziel in hunt for promotion

Mar 11 2009 by Andrew Weston, Wishaw Press

Victory keeps Dalziel in hunt for promotion

DALZIEL Rugby Club picked up their second league win on the bounce at the weekend, a result which keeps them in touch with second-placed Dumfries.

With Borders side Langholm, who currently occupy third place, securing a win away to Dumfries, the door is still very much open for Dalziel to nick the second automatic promotion slot.

But the fourth-placed club will rue the fact that an opportunity to close the gap further on Dumfries was missed as they failed to claism a vital extra bonus point.

Having disposed of promotion hopefuls Murrayfield Wanderers the previous week – in doing so scoring four tries and gaining a bonus point – it was hoped Dalziel could achieve a similar result against local rivals East Kilbride.

However, they came up against a resolute if inexperienced EK side who kept the scoreline blank up until half-time.

Injuries to prop forward Stephan Findlay and centre Fraser Duguid saw Craig Lewis and Jamie Hillis come into the starting line-up for the home side along with hooker Stephan Clowes and flanker Crawford Reid, back after taking a year out to travel.

And in the first 20 minutes, Dalziel squandered two great opportunities to cross the try line.

Firstly winger Vic Czarnoki broke free down his wing, drawing the full-back towards him before cutting inside and feeding his back division.

Dalziel failed to make use of their extra men and the chance was lost.

In an almost identical situation, full-back Robert Simpson latched on to a loose clearance kick before outpacing two EK players.

His good work created a three-to-one overlap but again instead of letting the ball do the work Simpson opted to take the tackle, squandering the opportunity in the process.

East Kilbride then had two kickable penalties but went for the touchline in an effort to score a try. They were made to regret those decisions as Dalziel held firm.

The Motherwell club were in complete control but could not break through the EK defence until full-back Simpson redeemed himself with a wonderful solo effort after the break.

A beautifully placed grubber kick by fly-half Ross McCaulay took the flat EK defence by surprise and the full-back sprinted through to collect the ball and run in from 15 metres out to score Dalziel's first points. Andy Hill kicked the conversion.

Stand-off McCaulay got his name on the scoresheet when he collected his own chip ahead, again taking EK by surprise.

It was a race between McCaulay and the visiting full-back to ground the ball and it was the stand-off who was adjudged to have got there first to score Dalziel's second try. Again the reliable Hill obliged with the extra points.

Dalziel threw everything at East Kilbride in the remainder of the contest but could not cross the EK line again.

This Sunday Dalziel are away to Royal High Corstorphine in yet another must-swin league contest.