GARNOCK 1ST XV v ANNAN 1ST XV.

Match Report from: Gus Robertson

The 1st XV took to the Lochshore pitch on Saturday knowing they were into for a tough old battle with the current favourites for the West 1 title, Garnock Rugby. And so it proved to be.

But buoyed with a decent win last time out versus Cumnock it was hoped the team could perhaps sneak something out of the match.

It was a slightly changed team again as Coach Gogs had to shuffle the pack with a a few players unavailable and a couple of changes in the backs.

For the first quarter, in not great rugby conditions, it was tight stuff but an Annan mistake led to the only try and Garnock took a 7-0 lead.

Unfortunately that was the story of the half and in the 2nd quarter mistakes again from Annan lead to 3 more Garnock tries.

There was some light at the end of the tunnel as on the stroke of halftime hooker Kieran Warrick crashed over for what turned out be the only try for Annan in the match.

Half time score: Garnock 26 v Annan 5

In the 2nd half, the conditions improved but was much of the same rugby wise with Garnock dominating the majority of the possession and scoring at regular intervals during the half.

Full time score: Garnock 52 v Annan 5

The scoreline did not reflect the effort the Annan team put on and as from the Garnock report of the match “To be fair to the visitors this is a better Annan side than the score may suggest and they worked hard and tried to play attacking rugby whenever in possession.”

Annan now have a couple of weeks off before their next match at home to Cambuslang on the 11th March. A match that if Annan win would guarantee West 1 rugby for next season.

Annan Team: 1 Ryan Glass 2 Kieran Warrick 3 Ronnie Martin 4 Fraser Hope 5 Dan Robson 6 Willie Grey 7 Callum Smith 8 Callum Taylor 9 Andrew Jancey (capt) 10 Josh Whiteside 11 James Kirby 12 Alex Halliday 13 Aaron Carmichael 14 Alex Jones 15 Max Thorburn

Annan Subs: 16 Aitken Render. 17 Ben Conroy 18 Ewan Campbell 19 Murray Forbes (All used)