With 4 wins from 6, Falkirk’s record to date was the mirror opposite of Lasswade’s and they are very much part of the leading group.

With their heavy pack the hosts always had the upper hand at the set pieces and to a lesser extent at the rucks. Out wide honours were more or less even.

Lasswade had the early territory and opened the scoring with a Matt Smith penalty after just seven minutes. Play resumed mostly between the 22’s and as the first quarter ticked towards its end Falkirk No 8, McGulloch grabbed the ball on the Lasswade 22 and strong-armed his way through two tacklers to the posts for an easy conversion by Faulds.

Falkirk came closest to scoring in the second quarter but twice spilled the bell in sight of the the line. Lasswade had the final say with a 39 minute penalty for the half-time 7-6 scoreline.

Play continued to be to and fro and on the hour another Smith penalty put the visitors ahead for the first time. Their lead lasted just three minutes until Russel, the home scrum half broke from a ruck on the Lasswade 22 and jinked his way to the posts for another seven pointer.
Ten minutes later, while the visitors continued to apply pressure, an attack faltered and Falkirk counter-attacked the length of the park to extend the lead to a two score margin of 21-9.

Pilling on the pressure in the dying ten minutes, Lasswade could not break the home defence until the closing minutes when Robertson rounded off a series of rucks on the line. Smith’s drop-kick conversion was still not quick enough to pre-empt the final whistle and Lasswade at least secured a loser’s bonus point.

Lasswade are fourth from bottom separated only by an inferior points difference from their next opponents, eighth placed Dumfries. They travel there this Saturday for a 3pm kick-off.