Match Report from: GUS ROBERTSON

The 1st XV travelled to East Kilbride on Saturday in their latest West 1 league match.

Due to both team being knocked out of the National Shield earlier in the month,  the SRU decided to rearrange this match from the already rearranged date of the 27th April to the 2nd March.

This left the coaching team with a few problems as a number of players had already made other arrangements and with not much notice of the change of date, a number of 2nd XV players stepped up into the squad.

As a result the 2nd XV match scheduled for Saturday had to be forfeited due to lack of players.

The selected squad had a more youthful look than in previous years, with the Annan backs average age around 24 and thats including the ages of veterans Alex Halliday and Andrew Jancey!

With only 5 matches left in the West 1 season for a chance of avoiding the 1, and depending on what West teams come down from National 4, potentially 2 relegation spots, the Annan lads really needed to pick up at least 16 or more points from their last 5 matches.

Unfortunately on Saturday it was not to be the away sides day.

The 1st half was a close affair though and despite Annan going behind 19-3, a late in the half converted Alex Halliday try made the half time score 19-10. Fraser McMillan with the conversion and was successful with an earlier penalty.

However that was as close as the away side got as in the 2nd half the home side side ran away with the match.

Final Score: 43-10

For Annan, if you were a betting man, the team are now odds on favourites to go down and with runaway and unbeaten league leaders Ardrossan next for the team on the 23rd March it is going to take a huge change in fortune and form for Annan to stay up.

There have been signs in recent matches though that Annan can match any team in the league but unfortunately it’s never been for the full 80.

The 1st XV have also struggled with player availability all season and with 44 players now having played at least once for the 1st XV this season, we have the player numbers but the coaches will be hoping in the last 4 matches they can select a more settled team.