It was a troublesome climate for rugby Saturday  as Oregon State took on Western Washington. The pitch was boggy, wind was howling and snow was falling throughout. Regardless, Oregon State put on a show in a 46-0 thrashing of Western Washington.

Oregon State was able to play tactical rugby and dominate possession early in the game and in the fifth minute winger Nathan Kimmel showed great pace and strength for his first score and a 7-0 lead. After that, OSU continued to pour it on when loose forward Mike Gamm made good on a short line-break and busting through for 14-0 lead.

Much of the same throughout the first half as OSU’s Cam McDonnel and Mike Gamm would all touch down through some effective scrummaging and their ability to get the ball out wide and at pace.

Kimmel was especially impressive in the first half putting together some great runs in the 26^th minute for his second score and the third coming in the 40^th minute from 30-meters out with two defenders right on him to help OSU to a 31-0 lead at the midway point of the match.

WWU showed a lot of fight in the second half with dominant possession, but couldn’t break through the Beaver 22-meter line due to a stingy OSU defense. Scores for OSU came in the form of two from Nathan Kimmel to put a stamp on an amazing five score day. Gamm would touch down again for his second score of the day to put the game firmly out-of-reach for the Vikings and a final of 46-0, with flyhalf Nick Cutrell slotting three conversions.

“I was pleased with our performance, but there is still a lot of work to be done,” Oregon State coach Anthony Lally said. “Kicking, in general play, exposed us a few times and we were late in supporting the ball carrier on front foot ball and this created a lot of pressure and slowed us down. Scrums and line-outs were sound given the conditions.”

Lally was especially praising to Kimmel’s effort. “Nathan Kimmel's effort is an amazing feat for one player and not one of the tries was a gimmie,” Lally said. “Nathan did a huge amount of classy winger finishing work.”

Oregon State will stay on their home pitch to take on the Idaho Vandals next weekend, while Western takes a small trip north of the border to Burnaby to take on Simon Fraser.