1st XV frozen out of the game at Lasswade
Lasswade 64 – 0 Perthshire
After a fairly close encounter at the North Inch early in the season, Lasswade were fired up for this return match but unfortunately, due to a raft of injuries and other call offs, Perthshire could only muster a token resistance against a highly motivated and organised Lasswade team.
The strong wind was in Shire’s favour in the 1st half but the biting cold meant that anyone outside the forward pack had to brave hypothermia to involve themselves in play. Shire started brightly enough and should have taken the lead from an Armitt penalty but the cold affected Jonnie’s aim and his attempt failed. Lasswade realised that the only way to play into the wind was through strong forward drives and unfortunately they had plenty of strong forwards and plenty of strong drives. They opened the scoring within 10 minutes in what was literally their first attacking move and failure to get early tackles in allowed the forwards to get their momentum going and this was followed a few minutes later when the dominant Lasswade scrum won a ball and No 8 Dale Robertson steam rollered over.
Shire were under the cosh now but the defence held out well and was up fast putting pressure on Lasswade as they tried to run the ball. The home sides dominance in the forwards was taking its toll despite valiant tackling from Shaun Barton and James Mair in particular aided by the rest of the pack. The main difference between the teams was that when a Lasswade player was brought down he had support players on either side of him and the moves continued until the inevitable score. Shire attacked in ones and twos and players soon became isolated resulting in turnovers. Further disaster befell Shire when Barton, Mair and Nisbet all left the field injured and the makeshift team became even more makeshift and Lasswade ran in another 3 unanswered tries within 10 minutes to take a half time lead of 33 – 0.
As Lasswade had the strong wind at their backs in the 2nd half, the small band of Perthshire supporters feared the worst especially with the rampaging ex Boroughmuir No 8 Dale Robertson causing havoc all over the field with controlled aggression. Although Lasswade enjoyed all the possession, Perthshire attracted plaudits from the vociferous home supporters for not giving up and all credit to the injured trio for coming back onto the pitch to help shore things up. With the game well won, Lasswade brought on all their replacements and although this helped restore parity to the scrums it didn’t prevent the try fest from continuing and they ran out comfortable winners scoring ten tries in the 64-0 victory. Perthshire were beaten by a more aggressive and well organised team but nobody can blame any of the players for lack of effort as they fought to contain the constant onslaught.
It is no good denying that Perthshire don’t have a mountain to climb to save their national league status and all players past and present need to step up to the mark before the league recommences on 11th January. Improving commitment, strength and fitness over the break is paramount and we are appealing to all players who retired over the last year or so to come back for one final push to help the club which gave them so much enjoyment and satisfaction over their rugby careers and help in their hour of need.
