East Kilbride Rugby Club head coach Craig Brown admits their National Shield final defeat to Stewartry was a bittersweet experience after his players got to live the dream by playing at Murrayfield Stadium.
The Torrance House side were bidding for silverware at the home of Scottish Rugby on Saturday and came up just short in a 15-22 defeat to their West Division One rivals from Castle Douglas.
Stewartry bossed the first half and East Kilbride had hopes of pulling things back in the second half when their opponents went down to 14 men in the final stages, but they couldn’t push home the numerical advantage.
It may have been Stewartry who lifted the Shield but Brown said it will still go down as a great day for the club.
He said: “I’m immensely proud of the guys and how they performed.
“We are disappointed but happy that we competed and put on a bit of a game for the spectators.
“It was bittersweet. At the back of our minds is the fact we were playing at Murrayfield and every player dreams of doing that.
“We got to do it and we were in the Scotland locker room for the game so it was a fantastic day apart from the result.
“The SRU guys who helped organise it were just fantastic. We got out on the pitch beforehand and that took some of the nerves away but the best bit was our fans. Turning round and seeing this big wall of black and yellow cheering us on was great to see. It was a great club day out.”
Evan Martin can say he has scored a try at Murrayfield after opening EK’s account in the match. His try was unconverted but Rory Blackwood added a penalty on before Blackwood also converted Matthew Smith’s try.
And on EK’s performance, Brown said: “In the first half, Stewartry didn’t allow us to play and they were absolutely brilliant at holding possession. We just couldn’t get the ball from them.
“Without the ball, you can’t assert your game plan. I think we were in their half maybe three times in the first half and we got into their 22 two times, and both times we scored, getting a good try and then a penalty.
“That was towards the end of the first half and in the second half we had to try and assert ourselves – and we did. We took the game right to them.
“In the last moments of the game we were down the side of their 22 and we just couldn’t break through.
“We had one try held up which would of tied the score. We had a clear break through for a try and the opposition player slapped the ball down about two metres from the try line, so that was really frustrating.
“That was a yellow card for him and he was off.
“It gave us a man advantage but we couldn’t get the ball away from the breakdowns quick enough, so we couldn’t get the width we needed to convert and that was the story of the last 5-10 minutes for us.”
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