West of Scotland take win against city rivals Whitecraigs

The rivalry with the club from the south side of the city has spanned a number of years with honours being fairly even.

Good weather and a pitch in fine condition gave the opportunity for entertaining running rugby. But this didn’t happen.

Too many missed passes from both sides and a wheen of penalties and scrums resulted in a stop/start game with only a few cameos of brilliant rugby.

However West scored three tries to the opposition’s zero and it was only the excellent spot kicking of the Whitecraigs number 10 Stephen Gillies that kept them within sight on the scoreboard.

During the first 10 minutes the ability of West to hold on to the ball was poor and Whitecraigs scored the first of their penalty goals to take them into the lead.

However after that West’s handling improved and it was good passing from a line-out that saw Darren Allan cross the line, Pete Burns converting.

Two further penalties by the metronomic Gillies brought the visitors back in front and it wasn’t until just before the half-time break that West crept into the lead with repeated driving mauls on the Whitecraigs line, repeatedly disrupted illegally by Whitecraigs, resulting in the referee losing patience and awarding West the penalty try.

The second period was little better with the Gillies boot taking the visitors into the lead again at 15-14.

However a moment of excellent play by West stand-off Mark Sim saw him seem to glide effortlessly through the opposition then draw the full-back to allow a pass to the supporting second rower Mark Jenkinson who ran in the score. Burns converted to take the score to 21–15 and there was no further scoring

In the end a win is a win and Whitecraigs deserved their losing bonus.

West travel through to Fife this Saturday to take on Howe of Fife, kick off 3pm.