Saturday 20 November: Lasswade 34 Hillhead/Jordanhill 9

“Hills” led the Division through the first five weeks with successive 5 point wins but then fell at home to Berwick and Howe. They came to Hawthornden on the back of a big home win against Perthshire but probably hoped rather than expected to resume their winning ways at Hawthornden.

Injuries and absences tested the depth of the hosts’ strength and both the starting line-up and the bench up had a slightly vintage tinge.
Weather-wise, the wind from Rosewell was strong enough to be an influence but the rain largely stayed away apart from a ten minute horizontal shower in the second half.

Hillhead kicked off with the wind at their backs but within two minutes were five points behond as Lasswade broke up the wing and Orsi sprinted into the corner.

The wind made further home scores more difficult for a time but helped Harte slot 2 penalties for the visitors to take the lead. This was only temporary, though, and on the half hour some hard yards put Lasswade into the Hills 22 where Matt Smith spotted a gap and jinked his way to the posts to make his own conversion easier.

Even with the wind advantage Hills could not breach the home defence and had to settle for a third Harte penalty just before the interval giving a half time score of 12-9.

With that wind now in their favour Lasswade ensured that play took place almost entirely at the Hills end but the visitors defended well.
Lasswade had dominated the set scrum from the outset and, on the hour mark, after a series of five metre scrums where Hills buckled under the pressure a penalty try became inevitable.

Hunting the bonus point try, the hosts kept up the pressure and ten minutes later, having had rucks stopped at the line a few times, Wilson picked up and dived over the top to touch down.

With five points already in the bag Lasswade were happy for Matt Smith to add another three points when Hills went over the top of a ruck.

Five minutes later, Griffiths put the icing on the cake with the last move of the game. Fielding an attempted clearance on half way, he brushed off the first two attempts to bring him down and used his speed to round the last defender and go round under the posts for Smith to convert.

Lasswade stay top of Division 3 with at least an eight point lead over second placed Berwick. West of Scotland are third and Hillhead/Jordanhill stays in fourth place, sharing it with Howe.

On Saturday Lasswade take the short trip to Murrayfield. At the home leg, Lasswade scraped past them by one point and they went on to beat Berwick at home by two points and then lost by four at Hillhead. Since then their results have been less remarkable but they could count as a banana skin side. Kick off 2pm.