Aberdeenshire 12 Lasswade 56

When Lasswade were last at Aberdeenshire two years ago it was a wet and dreary afternoon and Lasswade lost in a fairly dreary and disappointing performance. This time only the weather repeated itself. Still trying to come to terms with, and reap some benefits from, a recent player sharing agreement with Aberdeen Grammar, Aberdeenshire have made a poor start to the season with substantial defeats in both their opening competitive outings. By contrast, their visitors were looking to build from their convincing victory over title hopefuls, Peebles.

Most of last week’s selections were able to travel, although captain Borthwick stayed on the hospital bench having popped a rib and needing probably a couple more weeks to heal. The temporary absence was more than ably covered by Mark Billingham who has some experience in the role.

Lasswade received the kick-off facing into a breeze strong enough to be influential, and soon had the Shires defending hard in their own 22. When an attempted try from a catch and drive from a lineout 15 metres out proved to be a bit ambitious, Jamie Graham, playing at number 7 this week peeled off from the back of the resultant ruck and drove in beside the posts for Bell to start a perfect record for conversions on the day.

Lasswade continued to have the better of the opening exchanges and as the quarter hour approached took a ball against the head on the home 22 from which Kyle Smith made the decisive break before offloading to fellow centre, Mark Wilson. Stopped on the line Wilson had Graham on hand to complete the job and this second try and more close support play and vigorous defending throughout the game earned him Lasswade’s player of the match award.

The hosts played themselves back into the game over the next ten minutes when patient recycling among the forwards sucked the defenders in leaving an overlap out wide for Aldon to exploit and touch down with Paxton adding the extra two.

This proved to be only a temporary respite and they were soon defending their line again but unsuccessfully as Bell crashed through, literally, against the posts and then completed the conversion after some minor treatment.

Now pursuing the try bonus point, Lasswade turned up the heat even higher and when a five metre scrum collapsed, Quigley, who is adapting well to his third positional career at No 8, picked up and spun and bullocked his way to what became, with Bell’s kick, another seven points.

The contest become even more one sided in the second half with Lasswade bringing the try tally up to eight. All four tries were scored by winger, Ciaran Lamont, who both knew where to be at the right time but also that the best route to the line tended to be the shortest and most direct and his speed came in handy for this. Bell’s conversion of the last try from the touch line was the icing on the cake and made his personal tally 21 points from a try and eight conversions (out of eight).

Shire did bisect the four second-period scores with a try of their own by Macdonald from a brief sally into the opposition half but it was small consolation.

It’s early days to draw too many conclusions from these two wins but Lasswade is third of only four clubs who remain unbeaten. Foremost of these and table-topper is last year’s League 3 champions and old rivals Dumfries Saints who are the next guests at Hawthornden this Saturday. This should be quite a contest and not to be missed. Kick-off 3pm.