Alloa RFC 1st XV………. 80

Banff RFC 1st XV ……… 14

BT Caledonia League Division 1

ALLOA opened the new season with a resounding 12-try victory over newly promoted Banff in what was the first ever meeting between the two sides.

The North East club won the Caledonia League Division 2 (North) title last season ahead of perhaps more established clubs such as Ellon, Garioch and Moray and despite the final score line they showed that they will provide a challenge to most sides this season, especially the clubs who have to make the long journey to Duff House Gardens.

Alloa started the match with a number of players unavailable due to a combination of injuries, holidays and work commitments.

However, Lee Cairney settled any early nerves scoring his sides first try after only five minutes following a powerful Jamie Syme break and the winger went on to record 30 of his side’s points total as he crossed for a second score before the break and bagged a total of 10 conversions during the match.

Kris Aitken, new club skipper Ally Edwards and Matt Pope also scored in the first half to post a comfortable 35-0 lead at the break.

Credit must go to the visitors as they could have been forgiven for losing heart in the second half, but they did rally during this period and showed great character to take the game to Alloa through some strong forward moves.

However, Alloa’s defence was mostly in control and Alan Keir kept the scoreboard ticking along with a nice finish off quick scrum ball and Daniel Murrell, who had one of his best performances in an Alloa jersey, showed great feet to weave through a packed defence and score out wide.

Pope scored his second to take Alloa beyond the half century mark, before Banff got their deserved rewards, crafting two well worked tries midway through the half.

However, normal service was resumed when second half replacements, Ed Waller and Gary Taylor ran in tries following some powerful Forward runs and good support play.

Pope completed his personal hat trick before a late Edwards try gave the home side a perfect start to the season.

Rolf Maitland was forced out of retirement to cover for the shortage in the front row and was rightly given the J&M Builders Man of the Match award.

This was a good chance for the home side to blow off any start of the season cobwebs, but they will undoubtedly need to build on this performance going into next week’s match at Dunfermline.

Jim Gove, club vice-president, said: "Given the uncertain player availability in the early part of the season we would have been more than happy just to take a win. To score such an emphatic victory was well beyond our expectations."

Kick off is 3pm at McKane Park.