Carluke Tigers took on Rugby League Conference and Scottish champions Edinburgh Eagles on Saturday, and with an understrength team the Tigers found themselves in for a tough afternoon against an excellent, well drilled and experienced Eagles side.

An 85% completion rate allowed the Eagles to dominate territory and possession in the first half with the Tigers on the back foot for the majority of the half. Eagles opened the scoring after 5 minutes through hooker Ross Grady, who took advantage of the slow start from Carluke and darted through the ruck to score, and a further try was quickly added by Andy Grodynski. The Tigers then came back into the contest with a try from Nick McAuley after a series powerful drives from their pack, but the response was short lived and tries for Edinburgh followed from John MacDonald, two from Olly Foster and livewire replacement Cieran Watson.

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Eagles started the second half with the same quality they had shown in the first half and Craig Hunter was soon on the score sheet. The Tigers then had some sustained pressure on the Eagles goal line only to be thwarted by desperate Eagles defence. After this Edinburgh came forward again with Mike Wallace adding two scores.

In the end it was a tough afternoon for the Tigers, and the fact it was their first hit out of the season was plain for all to see. Add that to the fact that the Edinburgh side have been mostly playing together all winter for Napier University Knights at the top level of Student Rugby League in the UK. Its back to the drawing board for the Tigers, with a lot of hard work at training the only solution!

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Carluke Tigers; A. Lynch, L. McWhinnie, L. Matheson, M. Hart, S. Paton, R. McAuley, K. Matheson, M. Martin, R. Bryan, G. Sloan, John McAuley, N. McAuley, Jamie McAuley.
Subs; S. Clowes, G. Ruthven, G. Ferguson, L. Bryson, C. Cochrane, J. Pringle, A. Robinson .

Edinburgh Eagles; N. Broere, C. Hunter, C. Borthwick, A. Todd, C. Graham, S. Trotter, A. Grodynski, A. Carroll, R. Grady, S. Onions, T. Pringle, J. McDonald, O. Foster.
Subs; C. Watson, A. Brown, P. Stewart, C. Scoular, M. Wallace, J. Steele .