22-22 draw for Uddingston Rugby Club

Uddingston are third in the table after this stalemate, in conditions more suited to planting rice.

The Villagers narrowly edged the outcome by securing the four-try bonus points.

Sadly, Uddingston needed to win this game to retain any realistic hopes of promotion back to West Division 2.

Yet the Villagers were five points to the good in as many minutes at Loch Lomond when Chris King finished off some strong driving play to race over into the corner.

The angle for King’s kick proved too wide in the blustery conditions.

Ten minutes later, the weight and power of Lomond’s pack saw them power over from close range to level things.

The conversion was duly slotted over to push the home side into a 7-5 lead.

On 24 minutes, King again used his pace to evade three despairing tackles before crossing in the corner for his second try. Again the conversion was missed.

A Lomond penalty levelled matters at 10-10, before the hosts scored a well worked push over try. The conversion was landed for 17-10.

But the Villagers hit back with their third try when Ross McKeown latched onto a well-timed pop pass to crash through the despairing tacklers.

Another missed conversion from King brought the opening period to an end with the score at 17-15 to Lomond.

The Villagers got the ideal start to the second half when Lomond found themselves a man down after a silly punch from one of the forwards was spotted by the ref.

Despite the man advantage the Villagers failed to make any headway, and by the time parity was restored the scoreboard had remained untroubled.

The home side struck next when a simple 5m lineout drive saw them going over. The conversion attempt fell short but Lomond were now 22-15 ahead.

The Villagers hit back on 68 minutes when King collected a pop pass and sprinted over under the posts. The conversion was duly slotted, bringing the scores all square at 22 apiece.

This Saturday sees another blank weekend of domestic rugby fixtures due to Scotland’s Six Nations match in Rome.

The Villagers’ next league fixture will be on Saturday, March 5 when Birkmyre will visit Castle Policies, kick-off 3pm.