Rugby: Loch Lomond Rugby Club beat Paisley

Jan 29 2010 by Andy Galloway, Lennox Herald (main ed)

AFTER a seven week, weather-imposed break, Lomond returned to competitive action on Saturday with a win over near neighbours Paisley.

Conditions were close to perfect, but both sides were clearly rusty and the match suffered as a result, with handling and other basic errors throughout.

However, the home pack dominated their opponents from the first whistle. After just a few minutes, several surges from the forwards carried them to within inches of the whitewash, and Craig Norrie was on hand to gather possession and touch down.

The conversion from Gregor Mathieson drifted wide, but Lomond were in business and although Paisley earned a well converted penalty, Lomond dominated the rest of the first half.

They were rewarded for their efforts when Mathieson banged over a penalty, and then minutes later popped up to finish off an excellent rolling maul from the forwards with a try for the purists.

At half-time the score was 13-3 to Lomond and despite a dogged defensive effort from Paisley, the margin could and should have been wider.

The home side began the second half desperate to score the further two tries required for a bonus point, but they seemed to collectively forget that they would need to play rugby to do so.

In the early stages, they came up with a huge number of unforced errors that could easily have been punished had Paisley been a bit more fortunate.

Finally, Lomond began to settle and with 10 minutes to go Steven Ferrier carved through the Paisley defence to score an excellent try.

Relief palpably coursed through the side and this set up Lomond’s best spell of the match.

Following the restart, they marched straight back up the field and after more great work from the forwards, Ewan Todd crashed over for a try that was well converted by George Gilmour.

That score knocked the stuffing out of Paisley, and in the last play of the match Ferrier was on hand again to touch down, following good work from Mathieson and Alex McAdam.

Gilmour slotted over the extras with the last kick of the game and Lomond had recorded a scrappy, hard-fought but ultimately satisfying win.

Lomond will need to be much less profligate in their next match against Strathclyde Police if they want to move up the table.

The club would like to thank their sponsors Sakerski Bodyshop and the Village Rest for their kind and ongoing support.

Loch Lomond: C Lewsley; D Lockhart; S Ferrier; G Gilmour; S Cowie; G Mathieson; A Flynn (c); D McGinty; A Malia; M Flynn; E Todd; I Norrie; S Dennison; C Norrie; P Sakerski.

Replacements: A McAdam; S Daly; S McGinty.