East Kilbride rugby boss urges players to think on their goals for 2024 after tough end to year

East Kilbride Rugby Club head coach Craig Brown says his squad should use the Christmas break to have to have a long, hard think about what they want to achieve this season after they ended 2023 with back-to-back defeats.

The promotion-chasing side were closing in on second place a few weeks ago, but now find themselves down to sixth after bruising defeats away to Oban and at home to local rivals Strathaven.

Injury and illness may have hampered their efforts, but Brown believes some players haven’t been pulling their weight and says if they want league success and to go one better in the Shield competition – having lost the 2023 final to Stewartry at Murrayfield – they will have to put in the graft.

He said: “After the festive period we have got Kilmarnock up first and then we have the Scottish Shield starting soon after.

“Obviously, we got to the final of the shield last season so that will be playing in people’s minds as well.

“So what I am really looking for is a commitment from the players to get better. To say that we are really going to try and win it this year.

“At the start of the season, you ask the question of the players about what they want to achieve.

“It is easy to say I want to win the league or I want to win the shield. Things like that roll off the tongue really easily, but the reality is none of that happens without work – that is where the focus needs to be now.

“How hard do the players want to work to make these things work for us?

“I am really hoping in the Christmas break that the guys can sit down and really think about how hard they are willing to work for the rest of the season.

“The question is how hard do you want to work to achieve the things you want this season?”

The 3-15 derby defeat to