Wigton victorious following powerful display at Hawcoat Park

Wigton travelled south to Barrow for their first league game of the new season against Hawcoat Park and came away with bonus point win scoring over 50 points in the process.

Hawcoat Park has been a bogey ground for Wigton in recent years, however Wigton opened very brightly with a good passage of play switching the ball from one side of the field to the other before Hawcoat Park conceded an offside penalty in front of the posts giving Dan Reed an early opportunity to put 3 points on the board after only 4 minutes. Things got better as Greg Wrathall caught the ball from the restart and ran a fully 40m with ball in hand before offloading to John Wright who scored beneath the posts. Reed kicked the conversion and Wigton led 10 nil on 6 minutes.

Wigton kept up the pressure pushing Hawcoat Park backwards on their own scrum to win a penalty. Reed quickly passed the ball out to Matt Rogers who in turn delivered a lovely pass to on running Stephen Harris who powered over the line for Wigton's 2nd try duly converted by Reed. On 15 minutes with the Wigton forwards dictating play they opted for a scrum penalty on the 22m line. The ball was passed out wide finally arriving in the hands of Elliot Armstrong who managed to touch down in the corner for try number 3, the conversion from the touchline proved difficult for Reed but Wigton were already 22 points ahead.

Things got even better from the restart when John Story collected the ball from the ruck and was able to charge forward with no defenders in sight before he offloaded to Armstrong who stormed under the posts for his 2nd try and a bonus point for Wigton after only 20 minutes. Reed kicked the conversion and the lead had been extended to 29 points. A further offside offence on 27 minutes enabled Dan Reed to add a further 3 points to the tally.

Despite the dominance by Wigton, Hawcoat Park started to creep back into the match and from a line out their forwards were able to secure good ball and from the maul they managed to touch down for an unconverted try. A further Wigton penalty on 36 minutes for another offside offence sailed just past the upright. Once again Wigton's dominance in the scrum brought them a 5th try with Matt Rogers racing between the defence to score under the posts, Reed kicked the conversion increasing the lead to 39-5. Right on half time the Hawcoat Park backs were able to fashion an overlap and with Charles Studholme adjudged to have deliberately knocked the ball on the referee awarded a penalty try and showed Studholme a yellow card, the half time score was 39-12 in Wigton's favour.

Wigton started the second half with purpose and on 46 minutes a clever back of the hand pass by Dan Reed gave Richard Moffatt a run through under the posts for Wigton's 6th try converted by Reed. Hawcoat Park came back into the game with Wigton making a number of changes and they scored 2 tries in the corner to give them a bonus point for their efforts one of which was converted to reduce the deficit to 46-24. However Wigton were still dominant and from a scrum Robert Marrs burst through the defence for Wigtons 7th try with Reed adding the conversion for a comfortable 53-24 victory and a great start to the new campaign.