It’s been a rollercoaster week of emotion for Preston Lodge following the announcement on Thursday that they have been awarded the SRU/RBS Club of the Month for January but that same day, much of the membership was in attendance at the funeral of Club stalwart and loyal supporter, George Gillan. PLRFC have dedicated the award to the memory of George and prior to the match, players, friends and supporters joined in a minute’s applause to show their appreciation of him and also to Mr Matt Bilsland, past player, President and the Club’s oldest member, who also died recently.

Once the game got going, it didn’t take long for PL to get into their familiar stride and Lismore who are bottom of the league, could do little to stop the steady stream of tries that would flow throughout the afternoon. They were on the attack right from the kick off and following Cammy McLean’s push towards the try line, the ball was quickly recycled and a short pass from Greg Leitch to Andrew Clark was so slick that the stand off was able to score with ease. Greg Kinross slotted the conversion to make the score 12-0 after only 3 minutes. And it didn’t take long for them to grab a second when a string of quick passes through the backs got the ball to Jonathan Brash on the right wing and he crossed with ease for a well worked try.
The blustery conditions made handling difficult and the play was far from error free but except for one kick at goal which was missed by Lismore, PL dominated most of the possession and maintained territorial advantage for the rest of the half. A great set of passes through the hands of Paul Voy, Jonny Brash, Blair Cowan and Doug Naismith was enough to break the defence and allow Blair Robertson to score the third try and the bonus point was secured with the fourth when Greg Kinross recovered from a tackle and picked up the ball again to dive over near the corner. Two more tries would be scored before the break – the first following a drive and finished off by Paul Voy and from the restart, Voy once more broke clear and when tackled on the 10 metre line, passed to Raymond Mackie who was at his shoulder and the youngster sprinted home from 40 metres. Kinross had managed to convert three of the six tries in the difficult conditions to make the score at half time 36-0.

Flanker Darren Eales made his mark on the game with two tries in the first 10 minutes of the second half, both of them brought about mainly because of his ability to break tackles and stay on his feet and these were followed by a second and third try for winger Jonathan Brash, speed being his main asset although the second was created from a nicely timed pass from Andrew Clark. Kinross managed to convert just one of these four but it was an important conversion nonetheless because it brought his points total for the season to 150.
PL captain Blair Cowan, withdrew from the action and for a few minutes his side were under pressure for the first time in the match as Lismore managed to keep the ball deep in the home 22. A series of penalties allowed them to attack the PL line and their persistence was rewarded with a consolation try in the 60th minute to make the score 58-5.
Soon after, the home crowd were silenced when the referee gave full back Greg Kinross a straight red card following what appeared to be a fairly innocuous tackle and passage of play on the ground and from that point in the 68th minute, the tempo of the match seemed to slow and lose its intensity.
Despite this setback, PL still had another three tries in them, the first being a stroll over the line to bring Andrew Clark’s second of the afternoon, then Paul Glynn finished off a nice passing move to score near the corner and finally, Darren Eales completed his hat-trick as he was unstoppable through the middle. Brash took over the kicking duties for the final three tries and he slotted all three with ease to make the final score 79-5. The high scoreline also bought another important milestone as PL have now broken the 800 point mark for the season.

The format of the season means that there are often free weeks due to internationals at this time of year and form and continuity can be affected but this was a good run out for PL and should boost their confidence when they make the short trip to Stoneyhill to face Musselburgh in the District Shield next week. (Kick off 2.30pm). This will be the biggest test of the season by far for them but it will be a good measure to see how far they’ve come over the past few months.

Preston Lodge Team:
G Kinross, P Glynn, B Robertson, C Dixon, J Brash, A Clark, G Leitch
K Duncan, R Mackie, C McLean, B Cowan (Capt), D Naismith, A Welsh, D Eales, P Voy

Replacements:
D Thomson, A Archer, S McLean