Oban Lorne Men returned to Glencruitten for the first time in six weeks on Saturday, racking up a half century of points in an impressive performance.
In their first game in Oban since their 11th place finish in the Amateur World Cup, the Green Machine were fired up after a disappointing defeat to Kilmarnock.
Under the guidance of their captain Craig Wright, Oban quickly stamped their authority on the game after an early scare was cleared by Oban’s back three.
The hosts’ fast style of play reaped rewards with Calum MacLachlan, Craig Wright and Conor Taylor scoring in quick succession.
George Ritchie and Finlay Carmichael added the extras to put Oban into a comfortable 19-0 lead, with Annan unable to match the hosts’ physicality.
However, the visitors took it to Oban, with some hard carries and clever kicking as errors crept into the hosts’ game and consecutive penalties gifted Annan a try.
This was scored through a rolling maul, but Oban secured their bonus point try just before half time to leave the score 26-5.
With five points in the bag, Oban didn’t take their foot of the gas and flexed their game plan efficiently, as tries for Blair MacFarlane, MacLachlan and Ritchie saw the gap widen.
Annan were keen to stem the tide and began to show why they were a solid West 1 League team for a number of years, with excellent kicking helping them to pick up another score through their rolling maul.
However, Ewan Shearer picked up try for Oban and Callum Hamilton added the extras and full time was called, Oban 50 Annan 10.
This was a much better performance from the men’s side this week, ahead of arguably their biggest game of the season next week at Ardrossan.
Their next opposition are currently unbeaten and await at Memorial Field in what could be the game of the season so far.