Tennent's West One

GARNOCK 58

ANNAN 8

FORM team Garnock racked up an incredible ninth win in a row and in top spot after seeing off the South of Scotland team.

Annan kicked off on a bright sunny but cold day and immediately camped well inside the Garnock half.

Gradually, Garnock took possession. They won a lineout some 20m from the Annan line, elected to drive forward as a unit and as the ball was released Lewis McGeachy was on hand to power over midway out. Keir Walker’s conversion put Garnock in the lead at 7-0 after four minutes.

Young full-back Per Jacobson chipped the ball behind the Annan defence and only some desperate clearance saved the day. From the resulting Annan knock-on Garnock won the put-in and drove forward from the 22m line to give McGeachy his second try of the day when he scored near the touchline. The conversion was missed as they scored moved on to 12-0 in 20 minutes.

Three minutes later Walker punished Annan with a penalty conversion as their backs were deemed to have strayed offside.

Garnock scored two more tries before half-time to secure the Try Bonus Point - the first came from Walker when the scrum half picked up from a set scrum easily won by the Garnock pack – he dodged through the visitors’ defence in dazzling fashion to score at the posts to make the score 22-0; the second saw McGeachy score his third try when he powered his way through would-be tacklers and scored well out. The difficult conversion was missed.

There was some consolation for Annan as Craig McCann converted a penalty award with the last play of the first half

Garnock started the second half with a bang. The forwards won a scrum 35 metres from the Annan line. Instead of driving forward they elected to run and inter-passed the ball through four sets of hands before releasing Jared Reekie at speed. The centre proved too fast for the cover and scored well out to make it 32-3 in 43 minutes.

Five minutes later Alan Miller rounded off a strong Garnock pack’s run and passing move to score close to the posts. Walker converted.

Annan hit back when they latched on to a poor Garnock pass, fed the ball to their speedy backs to release fullback Josh Whiteside, who crossed to score at the touchline. in 52 minutes.

Then James Gibb was on hand to pick and score after the Garnock pack had set up several attempts to score from five metres. Walker converted, and the score was 46-8 after 57 minutes.

On the hour nd with Garnock well inside the Annan half, Reekie half broke through and fed the ball to Ben Trodden who showed great pace and scored a try in the corner.

There was time for one more try. Captain Matt Shiells gathered the ball 30m out and powered his way towards the line. Evading the cover defence, he touched down at the posts. The conversion was successful.

Saturday sees Garnock play Kilmarnock away.