Wigton grind out a victory

Things didn’t start too well for Wigton with captain John Story and winger Billy Stafford both suffering injuries during the warm up resulting in a reshuffle before kick off.

Wigton started brightly controlling the ball well until an infringement allowed Egremont a chance to kick a long ball into touch. From the line out the ball was worked well amongst the backs before the centre spotted a gap in the Wigton defence to touch down for the 1st try, duly converted to give Egremont a 7 nil lead on 7 minutes. Things got worse shortly afterwards when Egremont were awarded a Penalty in front of the posts to extend their lead to 10-0.

Wigton were now in control and a slick move saw Ollie Lewis touch down in front of the posts for Wigtons first try. Before the conversion was taken the referee appeared to send an Egremont player off only for him to reappear 10 minutes later to the confusion of the Wigton supporters. The try was converted by Josh Leeson reducing the deficit to 10-7. A penalty by Leeson on 37 minutes brought the teams level at 10-10.

Wigton started to take control of the match and on 55 minutes an Elliot Armstrong try gave Wigton a 15-10 lead. However a series of dropped balls and ill discipline saw good moves breaking down when Wigton should really have put the game beyond the visitors. Egremont were gaining confidence and only some resolute defending and poor line outs by Egremont meant Wigton were able to recover.

The power of the Wigton forwards in the scrums was beginning to tell and from a line out the Wigton maul was heading for a certain try when the referee deemed Egremont were guilty of infringing and ran he between the posts to award Wigton a penalty try to run out 22-10 winners.

Despite the slow start the Wigton forwards dominated with Robert Marrs causing mayhem in the Egremont defence every time he ran with the ball and justifiably winning the Wigton man of the match.