NEWTON STEWART U14 XV v ANNAN U14 TIGERS XV.

GALANT CONFERENCE B
10TH NOVEMBER 2019

Match Report from: Coach Calum Heughan

Annan U14s made the trip along the A75 to Bladnoch for their next match in glorious sunshine and were to enjoy perfect playing conditions on this Remembrance Day Sunday. The lads would wear cloth poppies on their shirts as a sign of respect and a minutes silence before the match was observed by all in attendance.

Annan had a 17 man squad and we used this game to move some players around position wise. Tigers were first on the scoreboard with some strong running from James Collinge to add to his try tally. Oban Nicholson was to power through the defence and was to provide the perfect offload to Ewan Bell to score Annan’s 2nd. Adam Hamilton was to power over in heavy contact to add number 3 before some nice driving play was to give our hosts a nice score in the corner.

The 2nd portion of the game was quite scrappy with some referee decisions confusing the Tigers and causing some outbreaks of dialogue with the ref which were not positive. This is out of character for Annan and it rattled us a little. The Reds took advantage and scored another driving try before Aaron Kirkup was to scramble the ball over the line to score a deserved try.

The final period was better for both teams scoring 2 tries apiece. Annans came from a strong push over from Wallace Alexander and the 2nd was the try of the match with Deacon Henderson running the length of the pitch to score a great individual try which was converted by Aaron Kirkup. Newton Stewart scored 2 tries with one conversion attempt hitting the crossbar. The Annan coaches told the ref to give the kicker the points as both crossbars were at least 2 feet higher than regulation. A final score of 19-14 to Annan was a fair result on the day.

Some scrappy handling today needs to be worked on and communication skills need sharpened. Some good running by Mason Watret and Ewan Bell is building confidence all the time and strong tackling by Zak Stevenson and James Collinge is making for a strong defence. Another fine performance by Oban Nicholson is giving the youngster a real lift and more ball in hand for Niall Patterson and Remo Armstrong is paying dividends on the pitch.

Onto the next game which will be a tough match with near neighbours Moffat. Go Tigers!!!

Annan Team: A Hamilton (1 try ), O Nicholson, D Henderson (1 try), R Armstrong, F Court, M Watret, J Collinge (1 try ), E Bell (1 try ), R Heughan, N McCourt, K Smith, N Patterson, H Nordon, Z Stevenson, W Alexander (1 try ), J Farral, A Kirkup (1 try,1 con )

U14 Tigers - still undefeated

U14 Tigers – still undefeated