Wigton again unlucky!

This was the case at Anselmians on Saturday where although the Greens had plenty of possession and territory they could not convert it into points and again showed their soft defensive underbelly to concede 26 points in the first half with only a single try to show for their efforts.

Anselmians had a number of south sea islanders plying their trade including Loa Tupou who played for the Greens a few years ago, and Simon Mason returning from injury who has been capped by Ireland, all of whom have higher league experience which showed on Saturday. Wigton were missing some key players through injury and suffered more injury woe early on in the game when Tom Gardner had to come off. Although Wigton were fielding a very young team, the oldest back was 23; they still had a team to beat their hosts, but only played like they could when the game was lost.

Wigton’s score in the first half came though wing Ryan Clark when Wigton raised the pace of the game and moved the heavier Anselmians pack around the field to stretch their defence. They could not repeat this however and played into the host’s hands by trying to drive the ball over the line and keep it tight. This lead to the ball being stolen and on more than one occasion Anselmians broke to go up to the other end and score a try. Wigton’s discipline again let them down and on a short pitch they were punished by the metronomic boot of Mason.

More stern words at half time did have an effect and the second half score was 13-12 to the hosts showing again that the Greens can compete when they show more belief. The two second half tries were scored by Gregg Smith who battled hard all afternoon and Callum Studholme who was tireless as a stand in fullback all game. Dan Reed converted one of the tries but it was too little too late. Fergus Ledingham at scrum half and Robert Marrs in the pack were stand out performers for Wigton in the second half and took the fight to the hosts.

Wigton have a fight on their hands for survival and are battling a growing injury list but their future is still very much in their own hands and must now target all their home games, starting next week against Broughton Park. Wigton have shown they can trouble even the best sides in the league at home and must play for the full 80 minutes next week to start to climb up the league.