WIGTON U16 BOYS v ANNAN/MOFFAT U16 BOYS
FRIENDLY
13TH OCTOBER 2024
Match Report from: James Morrison
Thirteen Annan and Moffat boys travelled south to Wigton on a surprisingly mild Saturday morning for a friendly match to keep their skills sharp. Wigton matched numbers and it was game on!
The home team came out all guns blazing and quickly set-up camp in the Annan half, giving nothing away at the breakdown and using their big forwards to regularly test the Annan defence – and the defence held firm!
Ten minutes of continuous territory and Annan barely getting a sniff of the ball came to no avail as the lads in gold and black matched the Wigton boys’ physicality with some huge tackles and excellent defensive discipline.
Indeed, it was Annan who made the breakthrough with speedster Kyle finding an excess of space on his wing and successfully running around the Wigton team to dot down under the posts.
This established something of a pattern for the game, with Annan happy to repel as many Wigton charges as necessary until opportunities for counter attacking and try-scoring came.
After constructing platforms through well-secured phase-play, the Annan boys were able to exploit the vast space afforded to them by the reduced playing numbers and rack up the points. The backs scored seven tries between them in the game (Bradley grabbing three for himself!) as Wigton were unable to stop them in the wide channels.
As if setting up these excellent platforms wasn’t enough work for the forwards, they also gradually overcame an initially Wigton-dominated scrum to provide yet another foothold in the game and scored four tries themselves with two for captain Aaron.
Wigton’s best attempts at scoring came through their strong ball-carriers, but the Annan defence was more than up for the job with Archie (from Moffat) putting in a particularly memorable, rib-crunching tackle on his opposite number shortly before half-time.
It was a solid team-effort, and the defensive structure and communication were impressive, keeping Wigton at bay for the whole game and keeping a clean sheet.
Said coach Gavin Graham after the match,
“Following on from a dominant first half Annan maintained the pressure with strong defence and tackle breaking runs.”
Many thanks to Wigton for hosting and to Moffat for providing the firepower.
Final score: Wigton 0 – 69 Annan.
Try scorers: Kyle (2), Bradley (3), Aaron (2), Ben R, Dan, Callum, Alex
Conversions: Dan (3), Ben R (2), Harry (2)
Man of the match: Hat-trick hero Bradley
Annan/Moffat squad: Callum*, Duncan, Alex*, Finn, Ben Q, Aaron (c), Dylan*, Ben, Dan, Kyle, Archie*, Bradley, Harry
(* – Moffat)
MULTIMEDIA
MATCH PHOTOS
None at the moment
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
Match was not filmed