Alloa RFC..................................................105

Harris Academy FP RFC.............................0

PREVIOUS matches against the side from Dundee have invariably been tight hard fought affairs, but Saturday’s BT Caledonia Division 1 clash at Earlsfield broke the mould in spectacular fashion as the home side ran in 18 unanswered tries.

With next weekend’s National Shield semi-final in mind, Alloa used the opportunity to try out a couple of positional changes in the backs with Daniel Jackson moving from full back to wing, allowing Alan Keir to return to the starting line up in his normal No 15 jersey.

And Jackson took no time at all to adjust to the change as he ran in two quick tries in the opening 10 minutes.

Prop James Shaw ensured that the backs were not the only ones to grab the glory when he burst onto a Graham Lindsay offload, before Jackson completed his hat trick after 20 minutes.

Despite a few short periods of Harris possession it was pretty much all one way traffic for the rest of the half as Kris Aitken, Alan Keir and Graham Lindsay completed the first half scoring.

Turning around with a 41 point advantage, the home side wasted no time in extending this lead when Lee Cairney stepped infield from the wing to wrong foot the Harris defence. Moments later, Alan Keir did the same thing.

It is fair to say that this was not the strongest Harris side to have made the trip to Earlsfield, but the visitors did rally for a short period of pressure on the Alloa line, but a spilled pass was quickly shipped out to Ed Waller and there are few better sights than watching this classy runner with ball in hand in acres of space and the Centre galloped in from 50 metres.

Jackson and Keir showed that they are no slouches either as they ran in further tries and former Stirling County man Jackson capped a man of the match display with another for his fifth score of the day.

The rest of the half was something of a training run as Harris understandably tired and Waller, McKenzie, Pope and Jack completed the scoring.

Overall a pleasing performance for the home side, and with no injuries they can now look ahead to next week’s semi which will undoubtedly be a very different affair as they face Carrick RFC.

The Ayrshire side are current Shield holders and they will be looking to make it three in a row as they also won the title in 2016.

So Alloa are preparing for their toughest test of the season, but with the experienced Dale Foster, Rab Truesdale and Jamie Syme to be added to the squad that faced Harris and the return of captain Alastair Edwards from a two-month injury lay off, the coaches have the fortunate task of being able to choose from a full squad for the first time in a number of seasons.

Kick off this weekend is 3pm at Earlsfield.