Stewartry held on to top spot in Tennent’s West One thanks to a bonus point win over East Kilbride at Greenlaw.
The visitors kicked off in the windy conditions, taking the game into the Stewartry 22 with some early pressure. Stewartry’s top try scorer this season, Stevie Hogg, was first to show in five minutes when he was stopped just short of the line, winning a scrum at the posts.
After 10 minutes, Lochie Spence found a gap to score the opening try and Andrew Picken added the points. Seven minutes later, T J McCarney carved his way through the defence to set Maxwell and McMorran in with prop McMorran crashing through and over the line for the second try. Andrew Picken again converted.
The Blacks went close from an Angus Lindsay charge but play was cleared upfield by East Kilbride and some loose Stewartry play let the visitors open their account in the corner. The conversion into the wind failed.
The Stewartry restart gave the Picken brothers, John and Andrew, the next chance before setting TJ off on another tackle breaking run to put Archie Nicholson in for try number three in 26 minutes. The conversion was missed.
In the final minute of the first half Stevie Hogg picked up from the number eight position in the scrum for the fourth bonus point try.
Andrew Picken added the conversion to give Stewartry a 26-5 half-time lead after a cracking half of rugby.
The second half started with East Kilbride winning the first scrums before both teams introduced a number of replacements after a few injuries.
Stewartry prop McMorran was once again in the mix and broke through to score his second try in the corner on the hour, which proved to be the end of the scoring.
The last 20 minutes saw the game turn into a bit of a stalemate.
Injuries to the East Kilbride front row players saw the scrums go uncontested, with the game now played around the half way line.
Stewartry were reduced to 14 men when A Mathias was yellow carded late on for dangerous play.
The last 10 minutes saw TJ twice and Lochie Spence and Mick McCulloch take play into the visiting 22 but were quickly closed down and Stewartry coasted in for a fourth in a row over East Kilbride since 2019.
Stewartry squad (all used): M McCulloch, B Spence, I McMorran, D Maxwell, S McCulloch, C Root, A Lindsay, S Hogg, A Nicholson, D Armstrong, S Milligan, TJ McCarney, F Forsyth, A Picken, J Picken (c), A Mathias, J McCulloch, F Barne, L Spence.
