HUNDREDS of Highlanders were at Eridge Park for the Bowral Rugby Festival yesterday, with the match of the day going to the Invitational XI with a 43-20 win over the Bowral Blacks.
The Blacks did their best but the Invites were too classy, as they ran in seven tries to Bowral’s four.
Bowral could hold their heads high as they walked off, as the Invites team was full of former Test and Super rugby players. Their front row alone - Jeremy Paul, Rod Moore and Bill Young – played a combined 132 times for the Wallabies.
Playing a “Barbarians” style of attacking rugby, the Invites had to wait only three minutes for the opening try.
As they showed their class and spread the ball wide, it looked like the Blacks would cop a hiding. But to their credit, the locals fought back and levelled the match.
Bowral’s Jesse Bond scored in the left-hand corner, before fullback Adam Blake scored the Invites’ second.
The Blacks’ Tom Whymark scored Bowral’s second try to take the score to 12-10 at the first break.
The second quarter started in the same vein as the first and Invitational scrumhalf Travis hall scored twice to take his team to a 24-10 lead.
The match opened up in the final third and a try to Bowral’s James O’Connor put the Blacks back in contention.
But the Invites stepped up a gear and tries to representative duo Paul and Young sealed the match.
The Blacks scored a try late in the match before Hall registered his hat-trick right on fulltime.
Bowral president Tony Fountain said he was thrilled with how the festival of rugby panned out.
He said the festival would continue next year and hinted at an expansion to include a junior gala day to make the festival a two-day event.