Lasswade’s last game was on 1 November against Dumfries Saints in the National league Cup when they went down15-25 so it was déjà vu time at Hawthornden as Dumfries were back again this time on National League 3 business.

Lasswade’s availability issues continue so while there was a mixture of youth and experience, the latter dominated.

Dumfries kicked off with Rosewell at their backs on a firm pitch with, unusually, little or no breeze in either direction but a chill in the air.
Lasswade soon worked their way into the Saints’ 22 but after 10 minutes couldn’t crack the Saints defence while the latter, on only their second visit to the other end since the kick-off, came way with a three point penalty.by McEwan.

Lasswade kept up the pressure but when the ball went loose Saints counter attacked and Douglas finished off under the posts for McEwan to make it 0-10.

The half hour had passed before the home side finally opened their account, moving the ball through several hands from a short range lineout on the left for Blair Smith to drive into the corner but the conversion drifted wide.

The two sides remained fairly evenly matched with the only other score being a Saints penalty to bring up the half time score of 5-13
Lasswade shot out of the blocks in the second half and with just two minutes gone Blair Smith added his second try converted by Metcalfe to narrow the gap to a single point.

Still pressing in the visitors’ 22 a loose pass was intercepted and Smith was able to go the length and dot down under the posts for any easy conversion

Lasswade continued to hammer away at the Saints defence but with just 5 minutes left a third try, this time by Clarke, narrowed the gap to a single point but came too late to bring a win.

Lasswade hold on to second place in the Division, ahead of Dumfries, but six points adrift of Preston Lodge who also have a game in hand.
Garnock are the next visitors to Hawthornden this weekend. Lasswade edged the away leg in the opening game way back in August but since then the Ayrshire side have just one win and a draw from 9 games but they also have 5 try bonus points and a losers bonus so they could be a banana skin. Kick-off 2.00pm