Dumfries 87 Lasswade 5

There’s not a lot to be said about an 87-5 scoreline. It should be fairly obvious that Lasswade were outplayed in just about every department starting with the set scrum where they were often back pedalling, the breakdown areas where the ball was too often turned over, to the wide open where all too often the Lasswade defence failed to match the Saints’ attack lines and all too often gifted them a gap through the middle and/or a two or three man overlap.

The visitors had no answer for the illusiveness of the Saints’ half back partnership and the support running from most of the remaining opponents.

The Saints’ first score came within four minutes from their first possession of the ball and by the quarter hour they had earned the four try bonus point and were 28-0 ahead with sixty five minutes still to play.

The carnage continued without respite and three more tries and two conversions followed before the break with the home side 47-0 ahead.

With the light breeze at their backs Saints racked up two more tries within the first quarter hour of the second half to bring up the unanswered half century and some.

Lasswade avoided the utter humiliation of a granny when a rare period of uninterrupted possession brought a ruck on the home line and Hart squeezed over to touch down and confirm himself as Lasswade’s player of the match.

The score was small consolation as Saints rounded their day off with four more tries and a century threatened before time ran out on them. This was a strong and well drilled Saints side who, on this showing will be title challengers.

For Lasswade’s part, from being realistic contenders for promotion last season, they have quite a way to go before they can begin to contemplate survival at this level from this season.