LOMOND and Helensburgh's second XV fell to a narrow defeat in their latest friendly fixture away to their Ardrossan Accies counterparts on Saturday.

T-Jay Lambert scored two of L&H's tries in the 17-15 defeat, with Scott Smith crashing over in the closing stages for the third.

The match was switched from Helensburgh to Ardrossan due to the pitches at Ardencaple being waterlogged, which meant 12 L&H players were unavailable, but they still managed to raise a squad of 19 for the trip to Ayrshire.

Before the start of the game both teams held a minutes applause in remembrance of Nick Fish and Graeme Lang, who both sadly passed away last month.

L-H had lost 12 players with the game being moved from Ardencaple to Ardrossan, but still managed to raise a team of 19 players to travel to Ayrshire.

 

Ardrossan started with the wind advantage and scored in the first minute after the L&H defence mis-judged a kick which the wind got hold of, taking the ball just yards from the try line; a hasty clearance to touch gave the hosts a lineout from which they spun the ball wide to score beneath the posts, with the conversion giving Accies a 7-0 lead.

The wind caused mayhem for both teams, with a series of dropped and forward passes thwarting attempts to build momentum, but with the stiff breeze in their favour Ardrossan added a second try, this one unconverted, in the 22nd minute to open up a 12-0 lead.

 

L&H finally began to get hold of the game after the loss of the second score, and the visitors reduced the leeway just short of the half-hour when David Washbourne fed captain Dougie King from a scrum and ball was fed through the backs for Lambert to score in the corner.

L&H now had the bit between their teeth, opting to run everything at the home team, and Aiden Harvie should have scored in the left corner but dropped the ball when over the line.

But the visitors' dominance eventually paid off just before half time when the ball was passed through both forwards' and backs' hands from a ruck for Lambert to touch down in the corner to take the interval score to 12-10.

The wind picked up in the second half and became a hindrance to L&H rather than the help it had been to Accies before the interval, and despite their attacking dominance a combination of dropped passes and the home team holding the ball up several times over their try line stopped the visitors taking the lead.

The home team then stole the ball at a ruck on 60 minutes and kicked the ball into the L&H 22 before eventually scoring to the right of the posts for a 17-10 advantage.

But that try was against the run of the second half play, and the rest of the match was played in the home side's half - only for the referee to disallow what looked like three perfectly good L&H tries.

The away team eventually made their dominance tell with Smith crashing over in the 77th minute to the left of the posts.

The conversion reduced the gap to two points, and though L&H threw everything at Ardrossan in the final minutes a combination of more dropped passes, good home defence and questionable refereeing decisions meant the hosts emerged victorious by two points.

The L&H players trooped off feeling it was a game they should have won, but one they will learn from for future fixtures.

There were debuts for David Washbourne at scrum half, Ethan Ward at wing /centre, Dan Hicks at flanker and Al Bodel at second row. All four played well.

Best for Lomond-Helensburgh were Washbourne, Tyler Gregson, and man-of-the-match Fabio Giarchi.

The next fixture for the L&H second XV is another trip to North Ayrshire, this time away to Garnock 2nds this Saturday, April 13.

Squad: Brian Lovell, Scott Smith, Martin Jamieson, Harry (Wolfie) Wallis (vice-captain), Fabio Giarchi, Stuart Carruthers, Craig Calderwood, Tyler Gregson, David Westbourne, Douglas King (captain), T-Jay Lambert, George Grigg, Josh Foster, Ethan Ward, Ben Wain, Mickael Paris, Denis Chamberlain, Daniel Hicks, Al Bodel.