The Margaret River Gropers picked up a winning hat trick on Saturday by taking their third convincing win of the South West Rugby season.
Flush with reserves on the bench for the first time in the season the Gropers played with confidence even with debut players taking the field.
“We had three that had never played senior rugby before,” Gropers’ coach Mark Sheath said.
“They had a fantastic game.”
As the new recruits found their feet their veteran’s held the team together in the mid field.
Sam Henry once again proved he could hang up his boots and get a job as a ballistic missile as he made mincemeat of the Dunsborough backline and created scoring opportunities.
He was just as effective in defence with a thundering hit on a Dunsborough player resulting in a time out to be called as the player recovered.
Credit needs to be given to the young Dunsborough fullback who managed to drag down the big man a few times and looks set to grow into a valuable rugby player.
Even though possession went all the Gropers’ way in the first half it took 15 minutes for them to cross the painted line for their first try.
They soon found form to run over three more to finish the half 22-0.
The second half was more or less a repeat of the first except there were more errors from both teams.
Sloppy slips from the Gropers’ gave possession away too often and was an all-too-common occurrence for the squad.
Off loading from the tackle resulted in a few forward passes and knock ons.
St John Ambulance had to be called after Groper's number 14 fell awkwardly in a tackle.
Dunsborough, who also had a large number of first timers, played strong in the dying minutes of the match and looked set to crack the Groper’s defence but were thwarted by a penalty five metres out from the line.
A key feature of the match was a large crowd that turned up to watch the game in perfect conditions creating a great game-day atmosphere.
“Anyone wanting to try out rugby is welcome to join our trainings on Tuesday and Thursday nights,” Sheath said.
“Training starts at six at the sports oval.”