LATE LAPSES IN CONCENTRATION HAND LASSWADE VICTORY

GHA RFC MATCH 217: GHA RFC 31 – 32 LASSWADE RFC 

2011/2012: Scottish Premiership Three

GHA seemed to have recovered from their relegation woes of last season and came to this game with 14 points from the possible 15 from their opening three games.

After recovering from an early scoring burst by their visitors, the GHA team soon clawed back the lead until they and quite a few of the supporters on both sides must have thought they had the game in the bag when they went 31-20 ahead with a little over ten minutes to go. Lasswade played the full eighty minutes though and snatched victory and five points in the dying minutes. Dominant in the set scrums and secure in the lineouts GHA had the majority of the territory and possession for much of the middle hour of the game.

The game started brightly enough for the Midlothian side as they applied all the pressure and earned two Brown penalties in the first six minutes. With less than a quarter hour gone Clark made it 0-13 when he snaffled the ball from a disrupted GHA scrum on their 22 and broke all the way to the line.

GHA got a better grip on their opponents and opened their account with a Murray Houston penalty at the turn of the first quarter. Approaching the half hour Henderson broke round the tight side of a scrum on the visitors 22 and unleashed their flying winger Jericevich for a run into the corner. Two minutes later the same winger again outflanked the defence sprinting in from half way to take his side into and 15-13 lead. Just before half time a penalty and another try through the opposite winger Ben Farrell, and some poor Lasswade defending, led to the half time score of 23-13.

The half time team talk helped Lasswade regroup and stem the tide but still they spent most of the time in their own half and another penalty converted by Houston opened a thirteen point gap. Come the hour mark Lasswade were making some incursions into GHA territory and turned over a home scrum on their 22 and retained and recycled the ball until Brown forced his way over and then added the two to bring his side into losing bonus reach..

GHA responded with more attacks of their own and on the 69th minute a perfectly weighted kick allowed Jericevich to chase down.

While GHA sat back a bit Lasswade’s fitness and determination came to the fore and a lineout 10 metres out yielded yet another catch and drive try for Brown and his cool conversion narrowed the gap to a nail-biting four points.

The visitors returned the restart and with just two minutes left won a lineout 40 metres out from which Clark broke down the touchline chipped over, juggled the retrieval for several metres before getting a grip and sliding between two defenders into the corner and collecting man-of-the-match in the process. The conversion dropped short but Lasswade successfully survived a lineout and a scrum to play down the remaining 90 seconds.

Lasswade demonstrated their tremendous team spirit and determination in coming from behind in this highly significant way match. Costly errors and poor defending in the dying minutes saw the home side ship two tries and go down to a disappointing one point defeat. Nonetheless, GHA picked up two points courtesy of their 4 tries and the losing bonus point. This result puts Lasswade deservedly third place in the table just one point behind GHA and four behind Kirkcaldy who are “four from four”.

Source: Bill McMurtrie & Lasswade RFC, Saturday 17th September 2011