LAST Saturday, Garioch made the short journey to Westhill to face Westdyce in a crucial league encounter.
Good early season form has seen Garioch rise to the top of the league and another victory would set them in good stead for some tough games
coming up in the next few weeks.
The Garioch forward pack was beginning to have a settled look about it with the same players namely, Benvie, Boyne, McDonald, Watt and Morrison forming the tight five for the second week in succession. Reg Tayler moving to number 8 to join Grant and Captain Richardson in the back row was the only other forward change from the previous week.
In the backs, Hardwick and Donague formed the familiar halfback partnership with Euan Moir moving to join Lawson in a dangerous looking centre combination. The side was completed by Roy, Williamson and Raeper.
On a beautiful day ideal for rugby, the Westdyce stand off got the match underway. Gregor Boyne, who has been impressive all season, took a good catch from the kick and the forwards raced in to support him.
The ball was recycled quickly allowing the ball to be fed to the backline where Lawson burst through some weak tackles to feed Moir for the first try of the game. Garioch were on the scoresheet with less than 30 seconds of the match played.
This was to set the tone for the rest of the afternoon when straight from the restart, Boyne took another good catch to set up a virtual carbon copy of the first try. This time Lawson found himself the recipient of good running by Moir. The conversion taking the score to 14-0 with barely two minutes on the clock.
The home side were struggling to cope with Garioch's strong, aggressive play and it wasn't long before Lawson scored his second try of the afternoon with another piece of strong running. The bonus point was secured within 15 minutes when a slick piece of handling allowed Liam Roy to glide over in the corner for his second try in successive weeks.
Tayler lined up the difficult conversion from out on the right but he had worked out his angles nicely and sent a beautiful kick straight through the uprights.
The strong start had, however, led to the visitors perhaps trying to play too much speculative rugby and an infringement in their own half allowed Westdyce the chance for a shot at goal. However, despite the best efforts of the Westdyce stand off, the kick sailed to the left of the uprights.
Following this lapse, Garioch upped their game to score four more first half tries through Moir, Morrison and a quickfire double for Chris Lawson. Tayler converted all to take the half time score to 64-0. The score could have been even higher had Lawson not inexplicably dropped the ball with the line at his mercy.
The second half started the same way the first had ended when more strong play by the Garioch backline saw Roy send Donaghue in for his first try of the afternoon. Euan Moir completed his hat-trick soon after with a good angle sending him clear of the Westdyce defence.
Tayler and Williamson then added scores to further build Garioch's tally.
The next score of the afternoon went to Neil Benvie who flopped over the line in the left corner for his first score of the season after some strong work by his fellow forwards. Tayler's missed conversion was his first of the afternoon.
Shortly after, more good work from the forwards allowed scrum half Tom Hardwick to score between the posts. This try took Garioch's points tally to over 100. Tayler slotted the conversion.
With both sides tiring, Garioch managed to score two more tries, both of which came from winger Dan Williams who was scoring his second hat-trick in a row. The referee brought an end to proceedings shortly after.
The Garioch coaching staff will be pleased with the way that the tries were taken with excellent support play being shown by the players.
However, they will feel that there are still many aspects of the game to work on and the Inverurie men will be looking to improve further this weekend when they welcome Huntly to Kellands Park in a match sponsored by Westerton UK. As always, all supporters are welcome for the 3pm kick off.
