Undeterred by the small crowd at Rugby Park on Saturday afternoon, the men in white put in a performance that impressed all present, including the Examiner’s editor Tim Hughes, who reportedly was so enthused by the match he has been rumoured to have been discussing with selectors his availability for a run in this weekend’s clash against the UNE Barbarians (a rumour he strongly denies).

Captain Sam Baker’s skills at the toss off shone through winning easily, electing to run with the wind and in the first 15 minutes the Elks did just that, galloping all over the paddock and their opposition like wild horses (or Elks even). An early lineout 30m out saw an accurate throw by the fiery Dan Hollingworth with a clean take at two by Baker to give Richard Salmon clean ball to deliver to Joe Tonkin who charged at the line and bustled over the top of his opposite and crash over for the first try, next to the upright.

Goal kicking being as it has, Baker entrusted the poison chalice to Tonkin who embarrassingly failed at converting his own try from in front with a drop kick attempt. This was clearly pointed out to the writer by many of the team’s goal missers, and simply could not be omitted from this report as the Examiner’s editor was watching.

Glen led 5 to nil and continued to dominate, using the wind wisely, however too many kicks didn’t find touch and this allowed the flamboyant Robb fullback to make some penetrating runs through the Elks defence. More than once these attacks were thwarted by the resolute and committed defence of the Elks backline in particular Matt Webster and Ashley Whitehead. In an attempt to avoid being hit by the “Strathbogie thrashing machine” (Whitehead), Robb began to go to the air and were rewarded on one occasion with a penalty and on a second occasion scored a lucky try when Ben Newbury got a terrible bounce. They converted and led 7 to 5.