HOWE HARLEQUINS V ANNAN WARRIORS.

Match Report from: Colin Warrick

The Warriors took to the road for the first away trip of the season.

Having picked up a number of injuries & supplemented with a couple of unavailabilities the 14 brave Warriors welcomed back ex Annan player Ali Cook to the fold to fill the last remaining shirt.

The game kicked off in near perfect conditions and straight from the kick off Howe put pressure on the Annan team using a combination of strong running forward and straight running centres, and it was from one of these charges that Howe broke the line and managed to break full back Kim Taylor’s despairing tackle to open the scoring.

Undaunted, the Annan team went back upfield aiming to get into the game, and following strong carries from Megan Muir & Nadine Barnes the ball was moved through the backs for centre Chelsea Barnes to score the Warriors opening try.

With both teams going at it hammer n tongs the game was fairly even with any break covered by good scramble defence. From a penalty in the 22 kicked the goal to take the lead.

Once again almost straight from the kick off Annan pushed forward and from a drive close range flanker Lily Glendinning squeezed over to score the Warriors 2nd try to take the lead, stand off Mally hitting the post with the attempted conversion.

With the remainder if the 1st half being quite scrappy due to frequent penalties and what seemed a conversation between the referee & either captain at each one. Howe seemed to benefit from this scoring another penalty & two tries before the break.

Half time: Howe Harlequins 23 v Annan Warriors 10

The 2nd half continued along similar vein with constant stoppages which seemed to affect both teams ability & desire to play rugby.

Unfortunately the Warriors were on the wrong side of the referees whistle with Ciara O’Connell, Nadine Barnes & Nicole Barlow all receiving yellow cards for high tackles & some shenanigans on the ground respectively, whilst Howes winger received two yellow cards, the 2nd meaning a red card.

The only scoring in the half came in the first 10 minutes with Hower scoring another breakaway try before Warriors prop Nadine Barnes barging over from close range.

Very hard to say much more about the 2nd half with it being so broken up & scrappy but the Warriors stuck on to the end to their credit.

Final score: Howe Harlequins 28 v Annan Warriors 17

A good effort from the Annan Ladies who gave their all throughout, still lots of improvement to be made at training with lots more tests to come.

Best in the forwards were Nadine Barnes, Kayleigh Warrick with forward of the match going to Allana McWilliam.

Best in the backs were Ali Cook, Chelsea Barnes with back of the match going to Mally McGeoch.

Annan Team: N Barnes, M Alexander, J Dalgliesh, K Warrick, M Muir, S Grainger, L Glendinning, A McWilliam, N Barlow (c), McGeoch, M Ker, C Barnes, A Cook, C O’Connell, K Taylor