East Kilbride Rugby Club boss Allan Steel insists his side will be able to cope with whoever they come up against in Tennent’s West Region League Division 1.
His team returns to action this week at home to Allan Glen's, following on from a gritty 7-0 win over Lenzie in terrible weather conditions on their most recent outing on January 29.
While breaks due to Scotland’s national team, weather and Covid have proven challenging, Steel says the Lenzie battle was a sign of his team’s strength.
They sit fifth in the table ahead of taking on the league’s third-placed side at home on Saturday.
Ahead of the Torrance House clash, Steel said: “Both us and Lenzie gave a really good account of themselves and played some good rugby.
“It was a real tough test and conditions dictated that the best of our rugby was played in the middle of the pitch.
“Lenzie are a strong side defensively and they put their bodies on the line. We scored when we needed to in that game and kept them out at the other end.
“We kept the ball for 38 of the 40 minutes in the second half and when Lenzie did get the ball back, we bulldozed them off a scrum or something like that.
“It was a really good team performance and hopefully the conditions get better so we can get to expand a bit more when playing our rugby.
“We just have to play what is in front of us, whether that is opposition-wise or weather-wise.”
EK will be hunting revenge against Glens this weekend after a rout was inflicted upon them earlier in the season.
A 53-12 loss was handed to Steel’s men and he is confident that this weekend will prove a tighter affair.
He explained: “We’ve had a couple weeks of training.
“It’s high-intensity fitness training. Glens had a big scoreline against us down there at the start of the season.
“We feel we are a lot closer to them than that scoreline suggested.
“We will want to give a big account of ourselves against them and really focus on going on winning the game at home.
“Getting the break does help a few guys as the last Saturday was a physical battle and hurt a few bodies.
“The rest does help us in that sense but doesn’t help our fitness.”
Steel has also been left pleased with the volume of younger players used within his ranks this season.
While getting to play at the top of their game consistently is a challenge, skill level hasn’t been an issue.
Performances at Lenzie provide EK’s boss with encouragement: “We had a lot of young players involved in that Lenzie game with some experience scattered throughout.
“We’ve played a lot of the youngsters this season.
“Consistency is a thing but on Saturday I thought that to a man, they were excellent.
“A game like we had then will really help them out in their development. It was really pleasing and they’ll take plenty from it.”
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