Lasswade 38 - Dalkeith 0, January 8th, 2022

It’s difficult to remember when these near neighbours last met at first fifteen level and on paper, this was a mismatch with 3 Divisions and 27 league places between the teams.

Lasswade are unbeaten from 11 games in National League 3, earning the try bonus in nine of them.

On the other hand Dalkeith have also swept all before them in East Region Division 3 winning all eight of their matches so far by an average winning margin of 47 points and have dropped just 1 of the 40 possible points.

Both teams have not played a competitive match for several weeks and this coming Saturday they each face a significant challenger in their respective divisions. They had both decided that the need to blow away the cobwebs outweighed the risk of injuries in a friendly game.

The day was chilly but bright and sunny with a light breeze from Rosewell and the pitch was still trying to throw off the heavy rain of the previous two days.

Lasswade kicked off and quickly regained possession and Scott Sinclair spotted a gap and stretched out to touch down with just two minutes gone.

From the restart Dalkeith had the hosts under pressure. If rugby matches were decided on territory and possession, the first half at least was definitely Dalkeith’s thanks mostly to their heavyweight forwards.

For probably thirty of the first forty minutes Lasswade were forced to defend their line and were being dominated in the set scrums. The visitors spurned several kickable penalties in favour of scrums hoping to grind down the opposition. Unfortunately the tactics became somewhat one-dimensional and the Lasswade defence always held out.

As the clock ticked into first-half stoppage time and on a rare visit to the Dalkeith 22 Robertson finished off a series of controlled recycles and Matt Smith brought up the half time score of 12-0.

Early in the second half, Matt Smith landed a 50/22 to set up aLasswade lineout 15 metres out. The almost inevitable catch and drive stalled but the ball was swung out to the left and Robertson claimed his second try.

Just 2 minutes later Lasswade took a quick throw which most people apart from the recipient, Mckenzie, and the referee expected to be called back and Mckenzie had an unopposed route to the posts. Matt Smith added the two points to make it 24 nil.

Play was mostly in the Dalkeith half for the last half hour and Lasswade added two more tries through Kelly and Calum Sinclair with conversions by Matt Smith rounding the score off at 38-0.

Covid protocols and weather permitting, this Saturday Dalkeith are at Inverleith Park to take on Edinburgh Northern who have the best chance of catching Dalkeith having lost only 2 games. Dalkeith won the home leg comfortably back in October. Kick off 2pm.

Meanwhile Lasswade travel to Scremerston, home of Berwick RC who are currently fifth in NL3 and have only lost 2 of their 9 games so far. Lasswade grabbed the home leg from them 21-19 with a try and conversion in the last move of the game. Kick-off 2pm.