Rugby: Dalziel are on the brink of promotion to the premier league

Mar 18 2010 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

DALZIEL are on the brink of promotion to the Scottish Hydro Premier 3 following Saturday’s emphatic derby win over East Kilbride.

The Motherwell side lead National League Division One and a win at Langholm next week will secure promotion – with Dalziel then focusing on taking the title.

The visitors started the game with some positive thrusts at the Dalziel defence, and stout tackling was required to keep them at bay.

But in 12 minutes, Dalziel went on the attack with a penetrating run by John Goldie and an off-load to Robert Simpson, who passed to Andy Hill and he opened the scoring, with Simpson converting for 7-0.

Blake Whitehead then finished off a good move three minutes later, with Simpson again converting for 14-0.

By the 25th minute, a break by Whitehead had Simpson on the overlap to score the third try, and although he missed the conversion Dalziel led 19-0.

Despite the commanding lead Dalziel maintained their concentration, with John Harris, Crawford Reid and Ross Donachie on target, with Simpson converting one for a 36-0 half-time score.

From the restart, Craig Simmonds scored and five minutes later, Hill grabbed his second and tries rained in from Simmonds, Gillon Duguid, Harris, Craig Lewis and John Goldie.

Simpson added three conversions for the final 77-0 scoreline.