Depleted Lochaber suffer first defeat of the season
Lochaber’s unbeaten start to the season came to an abrupt end on Saturday as they suffered a 31-point defeat to Coatbridge side Waysiders Drumpellier in the Tennent’s West Division 3.
With nine changes to the starting line up from last Saturday’s win over Birkmyre through injuries and absences, Lochaber knew a tough game was in store for this top-of-the-table clash which pitted two of the league’s undefeated teams against one another.
Lochaber started the brighter and after sustained pressure were awarded a penalty 10 metres out, from which Calum Sandison fed Conor Taylor the ball and he smashed through Waysiders’ defence to get over the line to score, with Callum Boyd converting.
Waysiders responded quickly and were next to get on the scoreboard with a try of their own to make it 7-7. Soon after, Lochaber lost influential fly half Euan Larter to injury which saw flanker Daniel Thomas drop into the backs with Niall MacIntyre introduced from the bench. Then only a few minutes later Lochaber suffered another blow when they lost Thomas to a knee injury leaving Lochaber with 14 players.
With only a couple of minutes left in the first half Waysiders got their second of the match from the right wing. After some great defence from Lochaber a quick pick and go over the top of the ruck was enough to get the try. With only a few seconds left Lochaber restarted the game but were immediately penalised at the breakdown. Waysiders decided to kick for touch but a late flag from the linesman to indicate the ball was out of play caused confusion in the Lochaber ranks which Waysiders were able to exploit for their third try to make it 17-7 at the interval.
Lochaber started the second half brightly and were awarded a penalty which Boyd kicked to make it a one score game at 17-10. From the kick-off though Waysiders hit straight back. After a missed tackle from the catch, they broke left and scored in the corner. The game settled down for a while and Lochaber’s scrum was once again performing well even with seven players and against a much bigger pack. Boyd was causing Waysiders’ defence all sorts of problems in the midfield but didn’t have his usual support to make the break through.
With 10 minutes to play, Waysiders finally made full use of their numerical advantage as, with Lochaber’s defence tiring, they were able to score three late tries to secure a 41-10 victory, which may be seen as a flattering scoreline.
The loss sees Lochaber drop to second in the table, one point behind Waysiders. Lochaber will look to get back to winning ways this Saturday when they play host to Police Scotland Glasgow at Banavie 3pm kick off.