Hamilton Rugby Club win Lasswade Tournament

Aug 12 2010 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

HAMILTON Rugby Club won the Lasswade Tournament last weekend.

Teams competing in the 15-a-side tournament were placed in pools, with Group A comprising of Lasswade, Peebles, Musselburgh and Haddington.

Group B was Hamilton, Forrester, North Berwick and Workington.

Played in a round-robin format, with 10 minutes each half and featuring rolling substitutes, the tournament offered Hamilton coach Dale Lyon a chance to try out as many players and combinations as possible.

Group A opened with hosts Lasswade defeating Musselburgh in an extremely close game that ended 3-0 – and that’s not the try count!

But the men from Stoneyhill recovered quickly and Musselburgh went on to beat Peebles and Haddington.

Meanwhile Lasswade beat Haddington but lost to Peebles, resulting in a tie at the top of the pool. On countback, Musselburgh progressed to the final on tries differential.

In Pool B, Hamilton opened with a 21-0 victory over Forrester, with first-half tries from Chris Hunter and Chris Stannage, both converted by Owen McLeish.

In the second half, Grant McCowan touched down but the referee had spotted an earlier infringement from the Edinburgh side and awarded Hamilton a penalty try instead, although McLeish’s conversion in front of the posts was a formality.

Hamilton faced North Berwick next and posted two first-half tries through Ross Inglis and John Selfridge.

David Sutherland – returning to Hamilton following a spell at Dundee HSFP – converted the latter.

A Selfridge try was converted by Sutherland in the second half, with an unconverted Callum Crawford try rounding off a 24-0 victory.

Workington also defeated North Berwick and Forrester, setting up a winner-takes-all decider.

However, it ended up being much simpler than most had thought, with three tries from Chris McLaughlan, Steven Wright and Ross Inglis in the first half augmented by scores from Steve Turnbull, Inglis and Richard Maxton in the second providing a comfortable victory.

A final match against Musselburgh, played 15 minutes each way, awaited Hamilton.

Musselburgh drew first blood through a Brian Walls penalty but straight from kick-off Maxton secured the ball and a ruck was formed, with Owen McLeish’s long pass to Inglis letting him break, providing space for Chris Stannage to score in the corner. McLeish slotted a difficult conversion for 7-3.

When Grant McCowan was caught offside in the second half, Walls reduced the deficit to a single point.

There was very little between the sides in the second half until Craig Inglis put in a good tackle from a Musselburgh lineout and the ball was turned over on halfway.

With the defence lined up, McLeish punted the ball towards the corner, a kick that was judged to perfection as it bounced up on the try line at the same time as Stannage arrived. McLeish’s conversion put Hamilton 14-6 in front.

Soon afterwards, Steve Turnbull booted the ball into touch, bringing the match to a close, with Richard Maxton stepping up to receive the trophy from SRU president Ian McLaughlan.

Bulls coach Dale Lyon said: “Saturday’s outing at Lasswade was a great first outing for the Hamilton boys. It has showed the coaching team where the guys’ fitness and play levels have reached thus far.

“This was a great tournament for us. Winning was irrelevant. We know what our goals were and preparation is good as we head towards the start of our season.

“Saturday showed the excellent work that Stuart Eynon has been doing with our backs and the whole team’s defence was outstanding in conceding no tries after 90 minutes of rugby.

“The core fitness work that Lawson Steele has worked on kept the tanks full all tournament.”

Hamilton are next in action on Saturday when they travel to face Premier 2 side Kelso at Poynder Park.