Greenock and Lasswade battle through to Murrayfield

GREENOCK Wanderers and Lasswade will contest the Scottish Hydro National Shield final at Murrayfield after both won their semi-final ties against opponents from a higher division.

At Fort Matilda Wanderers beat Dalziel 30-16, while Lasswade sank Whitecraigs 14-10 at Hawthornden.

Wanderers, already promoted from National Two, became the first side to beat National One Dalziel all season with a superb performance. Two penalties by Ant Devlin put the hosts 6-0 up early on and a converted try from Dougie Smith stretched the lead to 13-0 at the break.

In the second half Dalziel came into the match and two Robert Simpson penalties had reduced the gap to 13-6 by the 45th minute. However, Devlin made it 16-6 for Greenock with his third penalty of the day before two converted scores sealed the hosts' place in the final.

Firstly Brendan McGroarty and then Alan McMichael went over before a late flurry from below-par Dalziel resulted in consolation tries from Craig Lewis and Craig Simmonds.

The other tie was also a National Two versus National One encounter and it was a much closer affair.

Whitecraigs started brightly and were 3-0 up after just two minutes. They pounded the home line but could not add any points and Lasswade took heart from their defensive efforts.

They began to put together some good attacking play which resulted in a try. A good forwards move saw Gavin Brown eventually credited with the converted score and the hosts added another before the interval.

It was scrum-half Neil Clark, later named man of the match, who got the try after a well-worked move which had seen Brown run 25 metres before setting up the livewire No 9.

Whitecraigs had the better of the second half in terms of possession, but the Lasswade defence stood firm. Indeed, it was not until the last play of the game that the visitors crossed for a converted try, but it was too little, too late.

The results set up what should be a fascinating encounter at Murrayfield in just under three weeks' time on 24 April.

Greenock have already been crowned National Two champions, while Lasswade are battling for the second promotion spot and are the only team to have beaten the Fort Matilda men so far this season.