On a day when few games of rugby took place due to the weather, Lasswade were able to boast that they could host two games and big thanks goes to the diligence and hard work by father and son Ian and Andrew Barr. It was still chilly and the coaches had a strong pool to choose from, but the team still changed from the Thursday due to call offs and ups. Forrester arrived with a large pool of players also, which had been swelled by the call off of their first’s game.
Lasswade were playing into the breeze in the first half and it was visible from the off that the few weeks lay off from playing and training would take a while to leave the system. An early penalty by Danny Kerr settled the nerves bur Forrester replied with a converted try. Gari Coleman seemed to have laced his boots up wrong as some of his kicks were a bit touch and go, but he was still playing well and being in the right places at the right times. The forwards were working hard against a tough Forrester pack and some great work by Ali Murray released Blair Smith to go over for a well worked try. Towards the end of the first half, the seconds try scoring talisman and captain left the field with a nasty leg injury.

HALF TIME LASSWADE 2XV 8 – FORRESTER 2XV 7
With some positive words from Coach Craig Adam and Oz Wright, the team had a belief they could carry on and win this game. But at the start of the second half another converted try was conceded. This certainly kick started the Lasswade team and we collectively started to play for each other and believe in ourselves. Again the forwards were working hard in the scrum, lineouts and broken play against a stuffy pack. The backs were running some slick moves and the handling superb especially in the severe cold. Some moments of genius from Gari Coleman whose cross field kick did not quite come off but showed great awareness of his fellow players. Another rampaging run off a line out by Blair Smith released Danny Kerr, who was on his shoulder, to score under the posts. James Cunningham had a try chalked off for what appeared to have been a knock on as he tried to dot it down. Oh how he thought all his Christmases had come at once, only to discover that Santa had deemed he’d been naughty and so therefore didn’t deserve that bike, or in this case a try, he so desperately wanted. But another try was to come from Ali Murray who had been making some cracking breaks after moving to the back row.

FULL TIME LASSWADE 2XV 20 – FORRESTER 2XV 14
There were some good performances from Robbie Noble, Oz Wright, Ali Murray and Blair Smith the pick of the forwards and Ali Elliot, Danny Kerr, Gari Coleman and Rory Anderson the pick of the backs. Man of the Match was awarded to Blair Smith.
On a sad note Captain Marvel, Ashley CHOOK Gairn, left the field of play with what looked an innocuous knock to the shin, but unfortunately has evolved into a clean break of his leg. Luckily it will not require an operation, but I don’t think this was what Chook had in mind when he planned on getting plastered at Christmas. On behalf of the team and the club we wish a speedy recovery.