The long awaited match-up of the ‘big two’ teams in the Premiership North was played at Hamilton on 27th July. Both teams had a perfect record through the season so far and this was a likely title decider.
The Pirates made their usual strong start by scoring a touchdown early on. This was a much closer game though and they couldn’t follow up with another score. Tamworth pulled level with a TD in the second quarter and then stopped a Pirates score in the last play of the half at the 2 yard line. The period after half-time was decisive as East Kilbride ran in three TDs and built a 29-8 lead. Tamworth didn’t give up though and they were able to capitalize on Pirates mistakes to pull it back to 29-20 by the end.
Unless there is an unexpected slip-up in their last two regular season games, East Kilbride Pirates will now have home games in the play-offs in September.