Perthshire 22 Lasswade 24

Perthshire came to this game with just one win from their six to date making this a must-win for Lasswade if they were going to continue to be serious contenders for promotion. Travelling with more or less a full complement, the odds were on their side.

Rain had softened the pitch nicely and although always threatening, managed to stay away for the duration of play.

Possession and territory were fairly evenly shared through the first half hour with two failed Perthshire shots at goal being the only close scoring opportunities. Lasswade were then first to actually score when Blair Smith broke the line on half way and had Kerr on hand to take the offload and run in the remaining 20 metres.

Shortly after, Billingham fell victim to the ref’s earlier general warning to the visitors about ruck infringements and started a ten minute rest. Fortunately for his side the Perthshire kicker was off target again and 5-0 remained the score until the interval.

Already dominant in the set pieces Lasswade’s loose play began to take control and just six minutes into the second period a penalty set up a short range lineout for the almost inevitable catch and drive with Hennessey touching down on this occasion

More controlled pressure and recycling had Hennessey adding his second try just seven minutes later and Kerr slotted the ball from wide out.

The fourth and bonus point try followed in quick succession when the restart was gathered in and flicked to Elliot who found a gap to take the ball up to half way and Jed Smith slipped through a couple of tackles on the way to the line for Kerr to convert it to a seven pointer.

24-0 up with barely 25 minutes of play should have put the issue beyond doubt especially as another 10 minutes passed before Perthshire finally troubled the scoreboard. In their first real threat to the visitors’ line, some forward pressure led up to Bowater touching down but another kick at goal went abegging.

The visitors managed to shut things down again but with three minutes left on the clock an attempted clearance from within the 5 metre zone was charged down and touched down by Boyce.

This provided additional spark to the Perthshire side as they scented at least a loser’s bonus and some slack Lasswade defending allowed exactly that through a converted try on the stroke of normal time.

The ref, who had been right on the ball throughout, allowed the restart and Perthshire, with the assistance of a couple of penalties kept the ball live for another six minutes until their winger, Rae, was gifted space out wide to add the fourth try and second bonus point. Lasswade held their breath until the attempted conversion fell short to leave them with a much narrower than it should have been, two point margin and a five point win.

This week it is Lasswade who needed to remember to play the full 80 minutes and doubtless this will be thoroughly examined at training this week.

Lasswade are at home for the next two Saturdays and the first visitors are old friends and rivals Greenock Wanderers who are deeply in the mire with six heavy defeats on the trot and only kept off the bottom of the table by Livingston. Kick-off 3pm.