Newton Stewart 6 Lasswade 6

Last season Newton Stewart missed the League Champion spot by one point in the points difference column in what was essentially a playoff against Glasgow Accies in the last match of the campaign. This season they lost their two opening games including the visit to Hawthornden but came to this fixture on a run of seven wins. Last Saturday, most notably, they kept Falkirk off the top spot with a thumping 49-32 victory at Falkirk. With home advantage they had to be favourites for this encounter.

Lasswade travelled with a largely unchanged team apart from Mark Wilson returning from injury to inside centre where he was to earn Lasswade’s player of the match.

The rain and overcast cleared up in time for the kick-off but not soon enough to avoid a slippery ball and pitch. Newton Stewart kicked off with a light breeze at their backs and in a prolonged period of patient possession Lasswade worked the ball deep into the home half but were ultimately rebuffed.

Unable to crack Lasswade’s last line of defence, Newton Stewart opted for three points from a penalty to open the scoring.

As play continued it was soon apparent that the two sides were evenly matched both in attack and defence. There were fairly lengthy periods of fluent possession and the occasional skirmishes near one try line or the other but effective tackling and defending ruled out any tries. Matt Smith evened up the score with a penalty in the last moments of the first period and 10 minutes into the second half Newton Stewart went 6-3 ahead after a dangerous tackle.

There was plenty more excitement and tension but the only other scoring came on the hour when Matt Smith landed a perfectly struck penalty from the half way line to even up the score again.

The two points keep Lasswade at the top of the table but just one point ahead of Falkirk and two ahead of Peebles both of whom have a game in hand.

This Saturday is a catch-up day for all outstanding postponed games so far. This doesn’t involve Lasswade but may effect the League leadership. At time of writing Lasswade doesn’t have a 1st XV fixture.