Linlithgow 2s  62 – 28  Preston Lodge 2s

Saturday 28 September 2024

Report by Des Martin

Linlithgow seconds were at home to play Preston Lodge who were new to our league this year. The squad was strong with 22 players listed and the return of Neil Lockhart was a welcome addition to the second row.

The game started briskly with good handling from the backs Euan McCartney at scrum half linking well with Gregor McLean at standoff. The centres of Murray Johnstone and Aidan Wan were carrying strongly and wingers of Callum Lindsay and Eddie Beamish were a constant threat in attack.

The first two tries came from strong running by the forwards and James Roulston coming in from fullback creating an extra man delivering nice passes to Callum Lindsay who scored both. Gregor McLean converted both of them and then scored a try himself.  21 points to nil after as many minutes. 

Preston Lodge were stung into action and retaliated with a converted score to leave the Reds 2s ahead 21-7 at half time.

Changes were made at half time with the large subs bench to try and fit everyone in. We started the second half as we had left off with Ally Walker, Alex Dunlop and Alex McHardy all carrying well. This resulted in Callum Lindsay getting his third try. 26-7 to the Reds.

However the newly introduced scrum half was yellow carded and the introduction of the subs at half time had changed the shape and style of play for Linlithgow. Preston Lodge took full advantage of this and scored three more converted tries to leave them in front at 26-28. We had let them back into the game!

Ally Walker scored to put us back in front and the Manager reintroduced some of the subbed players. This stiffened the resolve and the team started to function better. Callum Lindsay scored another two tries making his contribution 5 tries in all. A great effort and very strong running by Callum. There was also time for a try from Adam Scott before Stu Young, back on for injury cover, sneaked over near the end.  

The final score was 62-28 to Linlithgow. A very good performance from all in the end.

Thanks to Graeme Miller and Phil Findlater, for agreeing to help with the 2nd XV in the future, Alan Dowell for his bagman duties as always and Baz McKeown for spending more than half the game in the burn retrieving rugby balls! A great win for the team.