Garnock made the short trip to face Ardrossan Accies in their opening Nat 4 fixture. With only one preseason fixture under their belt there was concern the boys may be entering the season a little undercooked.
Those fears were well founded and during the first 25 minutes Garnock struggled to get any kind of a foothold in the game. Ardrossan took full advantage of the visitors slow start taking a 33-0 lead before the visitors had mounted any serious threat.
At this point things looked bleak however captain Jared Reekie took matters into his own hands and scored a fine solo effort from halfway. This was followed 10 minutes later by a midfield break from centre Ronnie Vatuloka who powered his way to the line bringing the half-time score to 33-14.
The second half started in complete contrast to the first with Garnock in control and Ardrossan under pressure. The visitors added two further scores through Aaron Purewal and Ronnie Vatuloka both of which were converted taking the score to 33-28.
At this moment the outcome of the game appeared to be in the balance however Garnock failed to collect the restart and subsequently conceded an unnecessary penalty. This allowed Ardrossan to kick to the corner and score from the resulting lineout. This score relieved the mounting pressure on the home side and seemed to completely take the wind from the Garnock sails.
In the remaining 20 minutes Ardrossan once again dominated adding further scores to take the final outcome to 65-28.
This was a disappointing start to Garnock’s campaign however some confidence can be taken from the middle 40 minutes when Garnock were dominant in scoring four unanswered tries. Debutants Donald Morrison and Jackson O’Brien both put in positive performances and will be great additions to the squad.
Next week Garnock welcome Whitecraigs to Lochshore with a 3pm kick off
Garnock squad Shiells, Wilson, Chapman, A Miller, Synnott, O’Neill, Watson, Morrison, Kearney, R Walker, Purewal, Vatuloka, K Walker, Reekie, Smith Reps O’Brien, F Miller, Craig and Docherty
