Waysiders/Drumpellier clinch league title

Mar 26 2008 Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser

WAYSIDERS/DRUMPELLIER were crowned Division 1 (West) champions after an arresting display as they beat Strathclyde Police on Saturday.

The Langloan side have so far gone through the season undefeated and lifted the title with three games to spare.

With the weather conditions perfect for open running rugby, W/D went at the visitors from the very first whistle and were awarded a penalty in the opening minutes.

Scrum-half Mark Gairns converted to give the home side an early lead.

Shortly afterwards, Gairns broke from a scrum to run in an unconverted try in the corner.

With W/D camped on the visitors’ 22 metre line, it was only a matter of time until another score was given and this time David Milne powered through to touch down. Unfortunately, the try was unconverted.

It was easy for the champions-elect now and they stepped up the pace, Gairns creating a gap for skipper Neil Logue to score a try which Tam McDougal converted, making the score 20-0.

The first half finished shortly afterwards without any further points being scored.

The second half, with the fourth try beckoning and the bonus point in sight to give W/D the championship, started as the first ended.

The bonus try wasn’t long in coming after some great work from both the forwards and the backs.

Logue burst through the Police defence and gave the final pass to Swedish second-row Jonas Christianson to finally cross the goal line to score the all important try, which McDougal converted to make the score 27-0.

Again the running power of the W/D backs was proving too much for the visitors.

This time Midnight Gibson gained some great territorial advantage and his pass set up Phil McKenzie, who ran in under the posts to score a try which was again converted by McDougall.

With the game and title now finally in the bag for W/D, they were really enjoying their rugby and McDougal ran through to score again under the posts after which he converted to make it 41-0

After play was halted because of an injury to one of the visitors, W/D regrouped for the final period and Gerry Devlin ran in the final unconverted try to make the score 46-0.

This being the final score meant W/D were now Division 1 West champions with an unbeaten league run and still three games to play.

If the club manage to win the remaining fixtures, it would mean W/D would be the only team in the SRU leagues to go the full season being unbeaten.