Report by Dave Hamilton

Hawthornden is always a challenging venue to come and play rugby and Kirkcaldy knew what to expect against a very uncompromising side.
Pleasingly, there was a decent sized travelling support to cheer on the Blues and they were in for a rollercoaster ride, game wise.

The opening exchange featured a typically strong run by Rory Brown, some fine link up play from Fin Smith, Marcus Salt and Avi Nailatica with a second phase of play provided by Connor Wood and Craig Hamilton. This early pressure led to Brown crashing over for an excellent team try, converted by Smith and it was 0-7 after 3 minutes of play.

After a promising start for the visitors, the Blues conceded a try after some scrappy play. The conversion missed, it was 5-7 after around 12 minutes.
The restart resulted in the kick going straight out and it was a scrum to Lasswade on the halfway line, a fortunate kick found touch around 7m from the Blues try line. The Blues turned the line out over and the ensuing play resulted in a scrum for the Blues. An excellent bit of scrummaging from the Blues secured the ball and it was kicked neatly for a Blues line out.

A decent line out found Rory Brown who set off again but unfortunately knocked on in doing so. Lasswade scrum and another kick for field position gave Lasswade a line out around 5 metres out. The Blues decided not to contest or engage with the home sides maul, however the referee allowed play to continue and the home side took the lead in very odd circumstances.
Conversion missed, it was 10-7 after 23 minutes.

The Blues were scratching their heads and the visiting support were to say the least unhappy at this point.
It appeared that for the first time this season the Blues had forgotten their lines as they were definitely not operating at their full potential.
The match became a bit bogged down in midfield and Sean McKervail was penalised after a rather robust challenge.

Connor Wood and Avi Nailatica combined well provided a bright moment with a decent gain in ground but to be honest it was becoming a messy game and it was suiting the more chaotic style of the home side. The Blues had a great chance to score after a well worked scrum around 7 metres out from the home try line but the effort petered out after some poor decision making.

Marcus Salt came off briefly for Ross Lithgow at this point.

Lasswade worked their way forward and scored another try from a line out after 36 minutes, unconverted it was 15-7.
A high tackle was punished with a well-placed kick to around 7 metres out, as the home side attempted to keep the pressure on the visitors.
This called for some solid defence, and the forwards did their jobs, Craig Hamilton putting in a decisive challenge to allow a turnover and a kick to safety to bring the half to a close.

The Blues were not playing with their usual flair and whether that was down to an off day, positional and personnel changes or Lasswade’s style of rugby it was certainly a step-down performance wise from recent weeks.

The Blues restarted the second half and a series of knock-ons for both sides, dropped balls and general untidy play resulted in another unconverted try for Lasswade bringing the score to 20-7 after 48 minutes.

The Blues regrouped and after some good pressure Mat Collins crashed over for a try, converted by Fin Smith 20-14 after 50 minutes.
The Blues began to look a bit like their usual selves and some decent possession from Fin Smith, Craig Hamilton and Avi Nailatica took the game back to the home side ably assisted by the Kennedy twins who were looking for gaps to exploit in the Lasswade defence.

A penalty was put into touch around 10 metres from the home try line and some neat work at the line out resulted in the hooker carrying from the rear of the maul and finding one of the Kennedy twins who got the ball to Connor Wood who scored near the posts, more like it from the Blues, converted by Fin Smith 20-21 after 61 minutes.

Lasswade came right back at the Blues, as you would expect and another line out was awarded 5 metres out, the Blues once more had decided to not contest the line out and maul, well that was the plan, until someone actually did this time, which meant the door was open for the home side, Craig Hamilton then getting a yellow card for collapsing the maul, the result a penalty try for Lasswade 27-21 after 64 minutes.

Never a side for doing things the easy way, the 14 men got up off the floor once again and after some strong play by the pack, Connor Wood carried well and found Rory Brown who scored a fine try. Converted by Fin Smith, 27-28 after 71 minutes.

After some hard work defending, a penalty as conceded by the Blues, duly converted it was 30-28 to Lasswade after 72 minutes.
The battle continued with a Lasswade player injuring himself attempting to stop Avi Nailatica, the Lasswade player having to leave the field of play thereafter.

Avi was having a productive afternoon and he was hit high a minute after the previous challenge and the physio said enough was enough for one day so Jamie Green joined the game, and shortly afterwards the Blues were back to 15 players.

Some strong defensive play from the Blues and then ground gained resulted in a penalty with the clock at 76 minutes. A long-distance effort was attempted and unfortunately missed by Fin Smith who had been very accurate and efficient all afternoon.

Going into the last couple of minutes more sustained Blues pressure provide Fin with another opportunity from a penalty. This time there was no mistake, and the Captain slotted the conversion expertly. 30-31 in the last minute of play.
Lasswade restarted and in their haste to retain the ball knocked-on near the halfway line. The experienced Gavin McKenzie grabbed the ball, asked the Referee how “long to go?” “15 seconds” was the reply, Gavin tapped the penalty, dropped it into his hooker’s hands and the ball was carried into contact, retained and presented back for Gavin to kick the ball out of play.

A win is a win, this side, if nothing else, has a mentality to stick together, fight for everything and not give in. This was not their finest 80 minutes by any means, but if you can win whilst underperforming, it’s not all bad.