Spirits high as West romp over the Hills for covincing victory

West’s near neighbours and table proppers Hillhead Jordanhill arrived on a sunny but cold day at Burnbrae - although the chill was abated for many of the spectators by the excellent drams provided by match sponsors Glengoyne at the sold out pre-game dinner.

The visitors looked shaky from the start and West pressure quickly resulted in a penalty kicked to touch, a driving maul and Fraser Smeaton scoring from the base. The conversion was missed, leaving West 5-0 ahead.

West spent most of the first half with good passing moves that didn’t quite come to fruition. Hills even managed a charge down which looked dangerous but West cleared.

Then, just before half-time, West sparked into action. Excellent set up work from James Harley found Blair Smith who burst through the visitors’ defence before converting his own try for a 12-0 advantage.

Then Hills’ full-back was yellow carded and West had a sweeping passing move from one side of the pitch to the other, finding Angus Thomson who scored under the posts. Smith again converted to give West a 19-0 half-time lead.

West carried on where they had left off after the break, another good passing move finding Billy Dineen who scored in the corner unconverted for West’s bonus point.

Then yet another good passing move found Thomson forging past the defence to find Smeaton for his second try and West’s fifth of the afternoon, unconverted again.

Dineen scored his second under the posts after being found by a poor Hillhead pass, Smith converting to make it 36-0.

West’s final score came when Ross Carnegie made a break and the ball went through the hands to find Fintan Cuthbertson to go over, unconverted, in the corner.

The visitors managed a consolation right at the end when, after a good break and two offloads, Rory Harte scored under the posts and converted his own try.

West are now sitting mid table and have a fortnight’s break before a cup game at Burnbrae against Aberdeenshire.

Team: 1 Billy Dineen 2 Darren Allan 3 Andy Love 4 James Harley 5 Mark Jenkinson (c) 6 Tom Grey 7 Angus Thomson 8 Fraser Smeaton 9 Alex Fisken 10 Ross McAulay 11 Fintan Cuthbertson 12 Sandy McCallum 13 Blair Smith 14 Ross Carnegie 15 Mark Sim. Subs: 16 Donald Wilson 17 Glen Sutherland 18 Richard Tran 19 Jack Urquhart.