Loch Lomond Rugby Club trounce Uddingston

Jan 23 2009 by Laura McLachlan, Lennox Herald (main ed)

LOCH Lomond rugby club got back to winning form on Saturday – with one of the club's biggest winning margins ever.

Welcoming bottom-placed club Uddingston to the Dilly park, it always seemed likely to be a winnable match – but no one expected it to be quite so emphatic.

Tucking away a spectacular score of 73 was not on the horizon for a Lomond side whose promising start to the league campaign suffered a stutter, leaving Lomond mid-table and seemingly on the road to nowhere.

But on Saturday, the lads opened the doors to new opportunities with a performance good enough to justify promotion.

Uddingston ran Lomond close in the corresponding fixture last season – so it was unlikely the side expected the onslaught which ensued on their arrival at the Dilly.

Although Uddingston had a fair amount of the early play, Lomond launched themselves against their determined opponents and McGinty injected a change of pace to proceedings.

Dropping into the pocket, he lofted a delicate chip into the right corner that was gratefully gathered by skipper Malone who ploughed over to open the scoring.

McAdam's conversion fell short but Lomond didn't have to wait long for their second try.

Craig Norrie dived over the line from close range after great driving from the forwards and Nicholson, who converted for Norrie, added a second himself – which he again converted.

A single penalty for Uddingston left the score 19-3 at half time with Lomond firmly in the driving seat.

Norrie continued his fine form after the break and quickly collected his second try of the match, while powerful running from Fairman and Ferrier tore a shell-shocked visiting defence to shreds, earning both tries right out of the top drawer.

There was no stopping the home side as Mathieson worked a lovely scissors move with Tillley, allowing the veteran lock to charge over from the nose-bleed territory of at least 20 yards out.

Fairman and Ferrier soon added their names to the score-sheet once again, with the latter capping a sweeping move that started in Lomond’s own 22 and featured some great interplay between forwards and backs before Fairman provided the killer pass for him to touch down between the uprights.

Nicholson was once again unerring with the conversions; by the final whistle he would have contributed 23 points to Lomond’s final tally, and it was now only a matter of how many the home side would score.

Manus Flynn put the seal on a magnificent individual performance with a great effort under the posts before Norrie completed his hat-trick in typical style, dancing past bemused defenders who must have thought they were watching a late audition for Strictly Come Dancing.

The final score was 73-3, and despite the best efforts of a gutsy Uddingston side this didn’t flatter Lomond who, on this evidence at least, might finally have learned how to kill teams off when they’re on top.

Next up for Lomond is a tough away trip to Fintry to face Strathendrick, where they will need to be at their very best to earn a result.