Hamilton Rugby Club tackle their first competitive pre-season action at the Lasswade tournament

Aug 5 2010 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

HAMILTON Rugby club head through to Midlothian on Saturday for their first competitive run-out as they finalise preparations for the new season.

Coach Dale Lyon is looking forward to taking part in the Lasswade 15-a-side tournament for what will be his first games in charge of the full squad.

The tournament is made up of eight teams in two pools, with Hamilton kicking off at 1pm against Forester in Pool B.

Hamilton then play North Berwick and Workington to decide the order of merit before facing the side who finished in the equivalent position in Pool A, which consists of Lasswade, Musselburgh, Haddington and Peebles, with the two pool leaders contesting the trophy final.

He said: “At this time of the year this type of tournament is ideal for seeing how the boys respond to the pre-season workouts.

“We have been working hard on our fitness and in recent sessions honing the basic skills and working on a few set-piece moves – now it is time to see how it all comes together.

“The format is ideal to test our squad, with four games guaranteed and each game lasting 20 minutes, allowing us to see how the different combinations work and who are really pushing for starting places as we move to full 80-minute games the following week.”

Hamilton travel on Tuesday to Glasgow’s west end to tackle Premier 2 newcomers and last season’s Premier 3 champions Hillhead/Jordanhill.

They then travel to the Borders on August 14 to face Kelso, another Premier 2 side.