ANNAN 1ST XV v EAST KILBRIDE 1st XV
WEST DIVISION 1
12TH APRIL 2025
Match Report from: GUS ROBERTSON
The Annan 1st XV hosted East Kilbride on Saturday in their penultimate match of the West 1 league season.
The teams had met twice this season, in the shield and the league, with both teams having a win apiece.
Ryan Glass took to the pitch for the 200th time for the Annan 1st XV in a competitive match. Here’s to the next 200 Ryan!
And it was the double centurion that got the 1st Annan try of the match on the 32nd minute, but this just brought the score to 10-24 to East Kilbride as the National Shield Finalists ran riot in the first 30 minutes scoring 3 tries. Josh Whiteside with the other Annan points.
There was still time for 2 more tries before the half ended, 1 for each team. The Annan try from Captain Kieran Warrick who took a quick tap penalty and managed to get across the whitewash.
The half time score was 15-31 to East Kilbride.
It was a poor first half littered with mistakes with the home side missing too many tackles and were far too slow to the breakdown resulting in numerous penalties being conceded.
The 2nd half unfortunately started a bit like the first and it was the visitors who scored first again, their 5th on the day to take their score to 38-15 and game over you would think. But the Annan lads managed to tighten up their defence which allowed the home side to take the match to East Kilbride. And take it to them they did.
The home side ran in 4 tries to East Kilbride’s 1 as the second half wore on.
This seasons top try scorer Ryan Hetherington scored 2 and was on the end of some nice phrases from the Annan backs and forwards. 
Aitken Render and Aaron Carmichael also managed to cross the try line, again on the back of some nice team interpay. With Josh converting 2 of the tries with minutes to go it was just 39-43 to East Kilbride.
And it got better for Annan as with East Kilbride threatening the Annan try line, Josh intercepted a pass to run the full length of the pitch and Annan took the lead for the first time. Josh also converted the try. 46-43 to Annan.
Annan could and probably should have seen out the game but at the restart the Annan defence did not clear their lines and with the final play of the match, East Kilbride managed to barge over for the winning try.
It finished 46-50 to East Kilbride.
It was a disappointing end but in the 2nd half there was a lot of plus points and the never give up attitude was good to see.
The team’s final match of the season will probably be the toughest match off the season as they host West 1 leaders Kilmarnock.
Ryan Glass was awarded Annan’s Player of the Match.
Starting XV: 1 Ryan Glass 2 Kieran Warrick (C) 3 Sean Armstrong 4 Fraser Hope 5 James Morrison 6 Mason Watret 7 Eben Le Vin 8 Ryan Hetherington 9 Josh Whiteside 10 Fraser McMillan 11 Ewan Campbell 12 James Kirby 13 Aitken Render 14 Bradley James15 Aaron Carmichael
Subs: 16 Wallace Alexander 17 Stewart Livingstone 18 Murray Forbes 19 Hayden Hodgson (not used) 20 Ben Conroy 21 Max Thorburn 22 Andy McCreevy
MATCH PHOTOS
Photos thanks to Katie Morrison Photography. If the pictures don’t appear below they are also at Katies Facebook Page
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
Individual highlights
FULL MATCH
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