Franklin Clark hailed his East Kilbride Rugby Club stars for showing ‘grit and determination’ to reach the final of the National Shield. The Torrance House side travelled to Haddington in the semi-finals at the weekend and returned home with a 39-17 victory in horrible conditions Clark’s charges held a 20-0 lead at half-time but knew, playing into the wind in the second half, they’d need to fight tooth and nail to seal their place in the final. And the EK boss praised his side for doing just that to set up a clash with West Region One rivals Lenzie on April 19, which will be part of a ‘Finals Day’ celebration at Murrayfield. Clark said:”It’s absolutely brilliant. The guys played really well in really difficult conditions. There was a howling gale blowing down the pitch. We managed to play with it in the first half and we were 20-0 up at half-time, which was a bit precarious in my mind because I felt it was a 20-point wind for them in the second half. “Haddington got a couple of scores early in the second half and were within a try of getting in front of us, but the guys fought back and managed to score another few tries to get us over the line. “There was a lot of grit and determination in the second half to win us the game. “The scenes at the end were great. It was good to see everybody happy. One of the reasons I got into coaching was to try and give back to the guys who are playing now and give them what I got out of rugby. “I let the guys celebrate themselves on Saturday and I’m sure I’ll hear all the stories about it at training this week.” East Kilbride haven’t had much luck against Lenzie so far this season, losing 17-39 to Lenzie last month at Torrance House and 47-14 in October. But Clark insists they are an improved side now and can upset the odds. He added: “It should be a pretty competitive game. We played Lenzie recently and did okay. We struggled against them the first time up at Lenzie but it was a pretty competitive game at East Kilbride. “I think we are getting better all the time and you can see that from our results. We are scoring a lot more points now so I am pretty confident we can compete and we have a real chance of winning it. “Everybody will be fighting for their place now. We are determined to finish third in the league and that is still achievable for us. “Hopefully we can win the next two league games - away to Bishopton and Annan - to go into the final with a bit of confidence.”