Once again Lasswade were forced to ring the changes with Ciaran Lamont moving from centre into the back-row & Andy Hall moving from fullback to stand-off & Mario back into the front-row after missing last weeks loss at Dunbar
Preston Lodge started the stronger more forceful team of the 2 sides & indeed with only 6 minutes on the clock they opened the scoring after they managed to squeeze into the right corner with a unconverted try 5-0
Within another 5 minutes they had scored their 2nd try of the match this time over on the left wing after some poor tackling with the try once again being missed 10-0
This caused Lasswade to look at themselves & stepped upto the mark at least briefly & indeed within 10 minutes were themselves on the scoreboard for the first time in the 3 occasions these teams have met this season after the PL fullback was caught in possession inside his own in-goal area where from the resultant scrum Jed passed blind to Andy to in turn fed the onrushing Bradley to score try no 1 which was converted by Andy to bring the score to 10-7
This was not to PL’s pleasure & indeed within 3 mins they were back on the scoresheet,PL were awarded a penalty which they took the option of kicking to touch which from the resulting lineout a break from their no7 saw him tackled short of the try-line but with the ref being unsighted crawled on his knees to score try no3 for PL which was almost a repeat of the try he scored in the previous meeting at Hawthornden bringing the score with the kick being missed up to 15-7
5 mins later PL were yet again on the scoreboard with try no4 which was again unconverted 20-7
To make matters worse shortly after Bradley was yellowcarded after the ref warned the Lasswade captain Bernie that the next player caught infringing would be carded but decided to card him anyway a decision which left both the player & coaches puzzled !,Lasswade despite being a player down defended strongly until with 2 mins left of the sinbinning PL finally broke the resolute defence to score yet another unconverted try to bring the score upto 25-7& halftime.
H.T Preston Lodge 25-7 Lasswade
Lasswade started the 2nd half still with only 14 men on the pitch & indeed just before getting back up to their full compliment lost another score once again unconverted 30-7
With Lasswade back upto 15 players they started to get back into the match & were awarded a penalty 7 mins into the 2nd half which was duly kicked by Andy Hall 30-10
A further 10 mins later Lasswade were awarded another penalty which this time they decided to tap & run but were stopped illegally by a PL player not back 10 metres this time Andy decided to kick but after failing to miss touch the PL inside centre broke into the Lasswade 22 before offloading to a supporting player to score yet another unconverted try to bring the score upto 35-10
10 minutes further into the match PL lost the first of their players to a sinbinning after a dangerous tackle on Jed & before they could get back upto 15 players they lost their 2nd player the thuggish no7 after throwing a punch he was shown a yellow card which from this reporters point of view was long overdue & should have indeed been shown also in any of the 2 previous meetings.
Full time score 35-10
Man of the Match Jed Smith