Old Mission Beach Athletic Club handed Olympic Club a fairly humbling loss in the opening round of the Pacific Rugby Premiership, but perhaps was slightly flattered by the score.

OMBAC punished some Olympic Club turnovers for a 52-10 scoreline, but Olympic Club had several long periods of solid rugby - the OC just wasn’t able to break the OMBAC defensive line on a consistent basis.

The first try came early in the game after O-Club went through a series of phases, and then promptly lost the ball. OMBAC wing Tim Stanfill grabbed it and was off to the corner, and that kind of spelled out Olympic Club’s day.

Turnovers led to tries for flanker Faafetai Te’o, and wing Nick Evans - who fended off several defenders to get to paydirt.

Olympic Club did get a try from No. 8 Drew Gaffney, who was easily his team’s most consistent ground-gainer. And with a conversion and a penalty from Josh Tucker, it was 14-10 OMBAC midway through the first half. Then Evans scored, and player-coach Tai Tuisamoa thundered over, and the half ended 26-10 for the San Diego squad.

The second half was all OMBAC as the team’s defense just offered no options for Olympic. The midfield of Damien Fatongia and James Sarks shut down much of the Olympic Club attack, and OMBAC rolled 52-10.

“Our boys put it together the last 60 minutes,” said Tuisamoa. “Our focus this year has been mainly on defense and how we can turn the ball over and get some points off that. We focus on that in training and we got some points off it. We’ve got so many weapons on attack and we’ve got good leadership and guys in the forwards who can play anywhere when we turn the ball over.”

“It was tough,” added Gaffney of Olympic Club. “But we’re not that far away.”

OMBAC 52

Tries: Stanfill, Te’o, Evans, Tuisamoa, Denham, Purdon, Sarks, Beggs

Convs: Denham 6

Olympic Club 10

Tries: Gaffen

Convs: Tucker

Pens: Tucker