Excellent away victory for the greens

Wigton travelled to play St Benedicts at their temporary home of Lowca Rugby league Club on a bright but breezy afternoon.

The Wigton team saw a number of changes following last weeks encounter with Aspatria with Nathan Bell making his first team debut at hooker. St Benedicts tested the Wigton defence early on with a number of long kicks trying to use the wind to their advantage but the Bennies line out was poor throughout the game and the Wigton defence held strong.

The Wigton backs were also seeing plenty of the ball but were guilty of holding on or conceding the ball at vital times. On 16 minutes Wigton won their own line out with the ball being sprayed along the backs before David Hanabury glided between two defenders to score Wigtons first try confidently converted by Dan Reed to give Wigton a 7 nil lead. Wigton were beginning to take control as Josh Leeson squeezed in at the corner to score Wigtons 2nd try, again converted by Reed to extend the lead to 14-0.

The Wigton players were seeing plenty of the ball and with the try line beckoning it looked like a certain try in the corner only for referee Castles to deem that the ball had been held up. However, Wigton were not to be denied and from a scrum on one side of the pitch, the ball was quickly moved along the backs and with no cover Sam Harrison was able to touch down in the corner for try number 3. The conversion against the wind proved too difficult but Wigton held a 19 nil half time lead.

Wigton were quickly out of the blocks from the kick off with Ollie Lewis striding through the Bennies defence, he was finally held up on the 22m line but support was with him and the Wigton attack outnumbered the bennies defence enabling Elliott Armstrong to down for Wigtons 4th and bonus point try. Just when it looked like the game was over St Benedicts to their credit came fighting back with 2 unconverted tries in the corner in quick succession to reduce the deficit to 24-10.

Greg Wrathall made a great break only for the final pass to go forward but it wasn’t long before Wigton thought they had scored a 5th try but once again the referee said the ball was held up. However, Wrathall wasn’t to be denied a few minutes later when he picked up from the base of the scrum and drove forward over the line for try number 5 easily converted by Reed to give Wigton a 31-10 advantage.

Bennies came storming back to score try number 3 in the same corner as their first two but the conversion was short. On 66 minutes Elliott Armstrong made a great break before the ball was passed along the backs for Sam Harrison to score in the corner to give Wigton a 36-15 lead. On 70 minutes a clever kick over the top saw David Hanabury outstretch the Bennies full back to touch down for Wigtons 7th try converted by Reed for a convincing 43-15 victory against a tough Bennies side.