Reds u18 start Cup campaign with win

Lasswade u18  12 – 29  Linlithgow u18

Saturday 17 January 2026

Report by Nick Smith

Any concerns that the game might be cancelled due to frost soon melted away as we were greeted with smeary rain along the bypass. However, it brightened up nicely as we arrived at Lasswade to play the first of our group games in the East Youth Cup.

We received the kick off and quickly got into our structured play with some good strong carries from our pack, however when Lasswade took possession of the ball they put us under pressure and we gave away a number of penalties leaving us pinned in our 22.

Eventually, the pressure told and they scored from a tap and go penalty.

It was about 15 minutes in before we fired a shot in anger with Callum taking a strong carry down the centre of the pitch from the resulting ruck we went wide with Ewan drawing his man and offloading to TJ who duly did the same for Angus; he clearly saw what was needed and copied the move, passing onto Eliot who gained ground down the wing. The ball came back to Will who turned on the pace, cutting back towards the post for our first try. Joe converted and we were 5-7 up.

Our route into the game was clearly by moving the ball away from the well drilled Lasswade pack. We went quickly from a free kick with Kai reliving his days at outside centre making a well time pass to TJ and moved it onto Angus who made good ground. From the penalty we kicked to the corner and Kai dived over from the line-out for our second try.

Our next try came from another line-out, but this time we sucked in the Lasswade defence and then went wide. Callum found himself with a bit of space and the try line beckoning he dummied beautifully and cut back in to score showing new skills to his game.

The second half began in a similar fashion to the first with Lasswade taking possession of the ball and pinning us back in our 22. Our defence remained strong with Cammy and Kai making some good hits and Greg showing his tenacity by holding on a Lasswade shirt with his finger tips to prevent a dangerous break. Ross was like a machine in the tackle and it was impressive to see the big man get lower than many political insults we might have heard this week which is a high bar (I think).

It wasn’t long before Angus found a way to relieve the pressure through an intercept try.  I think most of us on the touchline thought he would be caught but his determination and guile took him in under the posts to score.

Lasswade nicked one back after this from a tap penalty which also resulted in Ewan leaving the pitch with concussion. We will miss him next week against George Watsons.

However the last word went to us after Callum battered his way over in characteristic style for his brace.

This was our first game after a long layoff over Christmas and New Year so it was good to get rid of a bit of rust out of the system.  Next week will be a tougher test against George Watsons.