GREENOCK Wanderers and Hillhead/Jordanhill served up a 10-try feast in a highly entertaining friendly at a rain-soaked Hughenden on Friday night as both sides prepared for the next series of fixtures in the BT National League.

It was the hosts who secured the victory by seven tries to three and they owed much to their international duo from Croatia, namely powerful number eight Tonci Buzov and full-back Nik Jurisic.

From Wanderers’ perspective Matt Gray, Andy Love and Anton Ward all worked tirelessly up front and youngster Kris Mathie posted an excellent performance at scrum-half.

Youngsters AJ Cooper, Craig Davies and Scott Bellew, pictured, all showed much promise and Gregor Fletcher returned from injury and showed that he was fit and available again for selection. It was the Hill/Jills who started brightest and seized the early initiative.

Two early tries from Buzov and centre Richie Graham gave the Glaswegians a 10-point lead before Wanderers’ winger Chris McCarron found some space in the corner and pulled one back for the locals.

On the stroke of half-time though power house Buzov claimed his second try of the contest and fellow countryman Jurisic converted to give Hills a 17-5 lead at the interval.

The second period started poorly for Greenock as straight from the restart home centre Robbie Williamson cut through their defence to dot down and his try was converted by Jurisic to stretch the lead to 24-5.

Thereafter Wanderers showed some determination and resilience and a fine run by Ward created the gap for Fletcher to breeze in for the touchdown.

Stand-off Kenny Diffenthal converted to keep the locals in touch at 24-12.

The hosts though quickly reasserted themselves and a brace of tries around the hour mark finished the game off as a contest.

Firstly Buzov secured his hat-trick with another powerful drive from short range and centre Graham once more took advantage of a gap in the Wanderers rearguard to score close to the posts.

Jurisic obliged with two further conversions to increase the lead to an unassailable 38-12.

The entertainment continued though as Greenock stuck to their task and some quickly recycled possession deep inside the Hillhead half was spun wide and flanker Love was on hand to squeeze in at the corner.

Diffenthal nonchalantly drop kicked the conversion from wide on the left to reduce the deficit to 38-19.

It was Hills who enjoyed the last word when second row Chris Tulloch barged over late on to complete the scoring.

Vice-president Steven Anderson said: “We can take a lot of positives from the game and in all honesty the score line did flatter Hills a bit. The priority was to prepare for our forthcoming games and tonight’s exercise was worthwhile.” Wanderers are sponsored by Texas Instruments.