On their last outing Lasswade put paid to Kirkcaldy’s title hopes and this week had the chance to dent Stewart’s Melville’s. In second place but nine points adrift of the leaders they still had cause to hope. It was not, however to be. They dominated in both possession and territory keeping their visitors on the defensive back foot for much of the game.

StewMel were seven points up with barely 5 minutes gone and added a second seven on the 20 minute mark. Lasswade stemmed the flow and on a rare visit to the home 22 Robertson removed the granny, rolling off a maul on the home line.

It says a lot for Lasswade’s defending that the only other score of the half was a StewMel penalty in the dying minutes.

Five minutes into the second period an offside gave Smith the chance to add 3 to Lasswade’s total. That was the only a temporary respite. In the next 30 minutes StewMel ran in or bludgeoned their way to three more tries.

With just 5 minutes to go, 34-8 \looked like being the end result However, probably resting on their laurels, StewMel allowed the speedy and illusive Grant Innes to grab two tries and a Smith conversion rounded off a more respectable final score of 34 20

With 12 of 16 16 games played and 23 points, Lasswade’s grip on Division 2 is precarious with two teams to be relegated. Third from bottom, they trail Berwick (27 from 12 games) and lead Preston Lodge (21from 11) and Newton Stewart (16 from 10). As luck would have it, they have yet to play all three of these (plus Falkirk) so their fate is very much in their own hands.

First up are Preston Lodge at Hawthornden this Saturday 15 February kicking off at 2.00pm.