Allan Glen’s travelled to Hawthornden with a similar record of two wins from three with the loss being a close home encounter with the hitherto rampant Preston Lodge pegging them to a loser’s bonus 21-25 game.

Player availability continues to challenge selection at Lasswade with another totally different pairing at centre, other positional changes and digging deeper into their reserves. Playing conditions were far from ideal as well with a brisk chill in the air, steady light rain much of the time and a breeze strong enough to be influential but unusually blowing up the slight slope towards Rosewell.

Allan Glen’s kicked off into the wind and in the first few minutes threatened the Lasswade line a couple of times but the home defence held solid.

Lasswade fought back and for the next 20 minutes dominated both territory and position. The scoreboard was first moved on with 26 minutes elapsed. The home side tapped a penalty 10 metres out and moved the ball through recycles to the opposite wing with Lucas Orsi diving over wide out but still within Smith’s goal- kicking range. Completely on top at this point Lasswade were back with a lineout 15 metres out and their trademark catch and drive gave Nick Elliot the honours and opened his claim as Lasswade’s Player-of-the-Match. Smith made it 14-0 which carried through to half time.

The second half was largely a test of the defences and Glen’s resorted twice to penalties to chip away at the Lasswade lead. Neither side could break the deadlock and well in to the final quarter Lasswade followed Glen’s example with a Smith penalty for a slightly more secure 11 point lead.
That security lasted barely two minutes as Glen’s noticeably upped the tempo for their centre to force his way over in the corner. The conversion drifted wide but the visitors were now within converted try range. Lasswade held on for the remaining 12 tense minutes and Glen’s had to settle for their second consecutive loser’s bonus.

Lasswade move up to second place 6 points adrift of Preston Lodge’s maximum 20.

League rugby takes a break this Saturday and at time of writing Lasswade will be making use of the rest.

Barring a draw, the gap between Lasswade and PL will either widen or diminish when Lasswade make the short trip to Prestonpans for a top of the table clash on 4 October. Kick-off still 3pm.