It was a bright but cold day that took the 2nds to home of Scottish Rugby to face Murrayfield Wanderers. With the addition of some of the young, upcoming guys in the squad it allowed the coaches to select a team with an outlook to the future of the club. Unfortunately neither of the coaches could make it and Dougie Morrison stepped into the breach to offer some guidance from the touchline.
Lasswade kicked the game off and were instantly on the back foot as the large, running back line of the Wanderers took the ball and made good yards. Poor tackling and commitment to the rucks allowed Wanderers to attack with the ball in hand and scored several tries early on. Again this awoke the Lasswade guys from their slumber and the guys were now making good use of what ball they could get. The backs were running some good lines and breaking the Wanderers lines on several occasions but the support play was just that half yard of the pace and good ball was lost either through turn over or conceding a penalty. Up front the forwards were having to work very hard in the scrums and lineouts with Wanderers disrupting and thus not allowing Lasswade any continuity. The loss of Matty Smith for a ten minute breather did not help the Lasswade cause and the Wanderers ran in several more tries.
Thankfully the half time whistle was blown and this allowed Lasswade to make a couple of changes and regroup. After Dougie and Oz had spoke about the undoings of the Lasswade game plan in the first half and what was working for Lasswade, it was up to the guys on the field to respond. Wanderers had obviously read another script and Lasswade went further behind. But this was the kick up the ass that Lasswade needed and the guys started to retain the ball better and make some good inroads into the opposition 22. After some good pressure on the Wanderers try line, Nick Elliot popped over the whitewash as the result of a quick tap penalty. Another try was lost before a well worked move of the scrum saw Craig Arnot going blind from about 25 metres out and popping to No.9 Clarke, Lewis not Neil, to out strip the defending winger to score a good try. What probably made the try sweeter was that the defending winger was our old friend Gavin Sharp, LOL!! That was were the come back ceased and Wanderers ran in a number of tries late on to run up a pretty scary scoreline.

FINAL SCORE: - MURRAYFIELD WANDERERS 52 – LASSWADE 12

It was a disappointing result but as a team and individuals we know what we need to work on and build up for next week. Next week sees the 2nds head to Meggetland to take on the Bears.