Rugby fans in the South West again were nourished by the game again on Saturday as the perennially undefeated Gropers played the Bulls in excellent growing conditions.
Sowing seeds and warming up in the rain makes for a good harvest and the Gropers were keen to maximise their yield from the excellent conditions on the paddock.
The Gropers fitness and early season preparation began to pay dividends straight away when the versatile Dom Carlsen finished an impressive backline move to produce a try in the top corner of the paddock.
However, the weather intervened to slow down growing conditions on what looked to be fertile ground for another bumper crop of tries for the Gropers.
The Bulls had clearly been feeding in a good paddock too, with weight up front and good conditions down the backline.
Ability to adapt to conditions is the key to success in any situation and this became evident in the stoppages and scrum situations, with the bolstered Bulls steamrolling the nascent Gropers scrum, despite the outstanding skills and effort of the half-back Tim Fearon and forward pack of Emile Takahashi-Curti, Jack Vorwerg and Braydon Nixon-McCormack .
The Bulls took some time to thrive and eventually forced the Gropers to dig deep in defense close to half-time.
Sustained pressure from the Bull’s tight five produced a try as the weight of the Bulls numbers overcame the measured efforts of the Gropers at the breakdowns.
Although still growing as a combination, the Gropers forward pack put down some roots as the game progressed and their lower body height in both the scrums and the rucks sowed the seeds of a record harvest.
Having firmly placed their stake on the game in the first half, the Gropers backline seemed to grow in width and height at the restarts as the game went on.
Mercurial Lock Tristan Moore won some crucial lineouts setting up some backline moves that made the Bulls feeling like the grass is greener on the other side.
Strong growth in the Gropers attack proved too much for the Bulls to absorb and the foundation laid by Gropers forward pack enabled the backline to flourish and bags of tries were collected by Jake Algate and Sam Henry.
It was indeed a fruitful day for the Gropers, with a tonne of tries produced.
With appreciation of the fertile ground in Margaret River for the game they play in heaven, rugby experts can only dream of the potential this Gropers team has to produce back-to-back harvests of tries this season.
If they dig even deeper and spread even wider this team could yield another record season of scores that give our neighbours in Bunbury, Dunsborough and Collie something to really aspire to.
Celebrating the harvest, the Colonial Brewery Man of the Match went to Simon Earl, proving to be the pick of the bunch of forwards flourishing on the field.
The final tally was 13 tries but like all good yields there is always one better, so the Gropers are hoping that Best Back Dom Carlsen alongside companion plants Jake Algate, Sam Henry will combine to break the record next week...when the machine moves to Collie in what will be a grinding match between the two finalists from last year.
The Gropers plough the ground for their next harvest on Tuesdays and Thursdays on the Nippers Oval from 6pm.