Match Report from: James Morrison

A terrific crowd turned out on a bright, windy Sunday for the u16 West Quaich final between Annan/Moffat and Lanark, both teams unbeaten in this season’s competition.

Two dozen of the Lanark faithful stood pitch-side, hoping there’d be more to this Mother’s Day than a return-tip down the motorway, and a strong Annan support arrived in good voice, eager for a home triumph to match the success of the u16 girls earlier in the week. Even the referee was well supported with some gentle encouragement and friendly advice from a certain Annan stalwart patrolling the line.

As it turned out, the wind was highly beneficial to the Annan team as they took the field, as there had been a kit clash and they were forced to play in the freshly laundered and therefore rather damp alternative kit. Jerseys sorted, lines painted, Grubber staffed, the admin was done and Annan kicked off for their biggest game of the season.

The opening twenty minutes played out with little scoring action, both teams tentatively feeling their opposition out and possession changing hands regularly due to some rather loose ball-carrying. Eventually, Lanark opened the scoring, their scrum-half peeling off a rolling maul and falling onto the ball.

This woke the local boys up and some powerful carries by Moffat loose-head prop Alex C provided the impetus for a quickfire double with tries from Ben R and Dan S. Ben R converted his try and Moffater Harry B the other.

Annan/Moffat grew steadily into the game, with a strong defensive effort led from the front by captain Aaron K who played like a man possessed. As luck would have it, the man who possessed him on this particular day was Pieter-Steph du Toit, and the Lanark team were left quaich-ing in their boots from his huge hits (and one accidental belly-flop).

Half time score: Annan/Moffat 14-5 Lanark

The second half began with some fresh legs and both sides playing more freely and it didn’t take long for Annan/Moffat to extend their lead.

Scrum-half Bradley G popped up with the ball, scuttled his way through a gap in the defence and offloaded well to Moffatarian centre Andrew A who gladly accepted the freebie and scored beside the posts, Harry kicking another good conversion.

Fellow Moffatarian Archie D scored a good solo try not too long after, barging his way though some uncharacteristically suspect Lanark defending following a scrum infringement.

Just as it seemed like there were an awful lot of penalties being conceded (by both sides) for not a lot of cards, Lanark found themselves down to 14 for repeated high tackles. Ben R scored his second try from the penalty.

Annan/Moffat dropped the ball from the resulting kick-off and Lanark hit back immediately, their muckle number 8 breaking tackles to score under the posts.

Ben R completed his hat-trick to put the game beyond doubt at 36-12, before Lanark scored a final consolation, their fly-half scoring and converting after an earth quaich-ing carry from their centre that sent Bradley flying a good 3 feet back to land on his backside.

In the end, Annan/Moffat had too much for their opposition and their second half dominance came from a strong defence which simply didn’t allow Lanark a foothold in the match.

It was a great game played in good spirit by both sides and a terrific Annan/Moffat win to ensure coaching team Gavin Graham and Iain Kerr (and their Moffat counterparts) ended their first campaign together with woodware (the Quaich was in fact a small wooden board).

Said Gavin after the match, “Annan/Moffat showed resilience and grit to overcome a disciplined Lanark side who posed significant danger on the counterattack”. A man of few words.

Congratulations to the u16 boys who played a hard game and were clinical when it mattered, and thank you to Moffat for coming over, Lanark for coming down, and the referee for coming from wherever he came from.

Final score: Annan/Moffat 36 – 19 Lanark

Try scorers: Ben R (3), Dan, Andrew, Archie

Conversions: Ben R (1), Harry (2)

Man of the match: Hat-trick hero Ben R.

Annan/Moffat squad: Alex*, Ben Q, Jack, Joe*, Dyllan*, Archie*, Aaron, Finn, Bradley, Dan, McKinley, Ben R, Andrew*, Vincent*, Harry*, Alfie*, Ciaran, Josh, Duncan, Kyle (* – Moffat)

That winning feeling