After a Christmas break extended by the catastrophic bushfires in Victoria a week earlier, the A-grade Rhinos made the trip to play Nathalia for the first day of the clash on Saturday.
The Rhinos won the toss and elected to bat.
Openers Griegan French and Tom McCallum started well, seeing off the first seven overs of the new ball.
This was until French was bowled by a good delivery from Archie Congues for five.
Harry Hillier was the next batter in, joining McCallum.
The pair put on a 46 run partnership before McCallum was out for 20, caught by Brenton Campbell off the bowling of Jason McKenna.
Charlie Paton was next in to bat and scored 14 before being dismissed by James Nugent, caught by wicket-keeper import Emile Haratbar.
Charlie Hillier joined his brother Harry in the middle and was looking to add to his form with the bat.
But he was given out LBW off the bowling of Scotty Morris without scoring.
Harry was next to depart after making his half century, top scoring with 61.
He was dismissed off the bowling of Campbell, caught by Haratbar at keeper.
This saw the Rhinos’ two longest serving players - Andrew Hogan and Boddie Arthur - come to the crease together.
They tried to battle through the restrictive Nathalia bowling.
Hogan came undone for 13 however, caught behind off the bowling of Morris by Haratbar.
Morris then ran through the Rhinos lower-order, removing Jonty Tubb stumped for three, Rory Bartlett bowled for six and Arthur caught and bowled for 16 after some resistance.
The Rhinos’ final wicket partnership then added a handy 25 runs, with Ted Wren finishing on four in his Rhinos A-grade debut after being caught by Haratbar off Nugent's bowling.
Lachlan Holloway was the not out batter, counterpunching 23 off 28 balls.
It included the only six of the Rhinos’ innings.
This saw the Rhinos bowled out for 166 from 72 overs.
This left a precarious eight overs for Nathalia to bat in the day.
The Nathalia openers looked to get off to a good start against Rhinos bowlers Rory Bartlett and Charlie Hillier, who were searching for a wicket.
In the fifth over, Bartlett struck with the breakthrough of Jason McKenna. He was caught for 17 by Griegan French.
From there, the batters just looked to survive until the end of the day’s play.
The Nathalia batsmen got through to stumps with a score of 1/27 on the board.
Zander Quinn, on 10 not out, and Archie Congues, 0 not out, were the batters at the crease.
