REPORT FROM COACH BILLY HENDERSON

9 girls travelled down to Penrith. We were missing a few with Scotland training/holidays/illness and injury.

We lost 15-3 in tries. The result was never in doubt, however James and myself have no real issue with the girls effort and conduct. They put the effort in and no moaning about getting beaten. Also they didn’t give up.

Penrith loaned us 3 girls over the course of the game, Katherine/Jessica and one other (apologies, I didn’t get your name)

Being under the cosh was made harder by when Penrith scored, at the restart we had to kick possession back to them,

Very pleasing to see Jessica and Calise back playing and when they readjusted to rugby they tacked and carried well.

During the game Josie kicked well

In my opinion we were the better scrummagers and shaded it in the line outs.

Our 3 scorers:

Eva – steps a few to score

Marnie – bashes in to score

The 3rd try, I will paint a bit of a picture.

Penalty awarded to us in our 22. A planned move resulted in Marnie getting a 60m run up the pitch but getting pushed into touch.

Penrith line out but we didn’t defend as I instructed however Pagan steals the ball, gets it to Marnie’s hands and no-one is stopping her

How we could improve

Rucking was better than last game but not as good as we were mid season.

On kick offs we must push up harder (easy for me to say on the sidelines without having done the work in the game the girls did!)

In open play if we lose the ball we must push up flat in a defensive line so as the cut down on the opposition space.

But overall we were happy with Annan’s performance.

Game was played in good spirits by both teams and nice to see ex Annan Girl Aylish doing well as Penrith Captain.

Many thanks to Penrith for hosting and after match hospitality.