ANNAN Warriors returned to competitive action on Sunday following the festive break with a visit to local rivals Dumfries Saints in the first game of the league phase of the National Plate.
The Warriors, although unsure what to expect from their hosts, knew that they were a vastly more experienced team and hoped to make that tell.
They started well, going forward in both attack and defence, pressurising the hosts and driving them back forcing errors.
And it was from one of these errors on 11 minutes that, following a scrum pick up from Kayleigh Warrick, the ball was fed into centre Lexie Steel who was stopped close to the line. A quick ruck ball allowed stand-off Mally McGeoch to pick up and dot down.
On 20 minutes the Warriors increased their lead when, from a dart from a ruck by scrum half Niamh Ross, the ball was popped up to the supporting Jane Haren who rounded the last defender to score, the score being converted by McGeoch.
With the conditions worsening the errors increased, but on the 30 minute mark from a penalty the ball was tapped quickly to Warrick, who burst between two defenders and offloaded to flanker Lexie Glendinning to score under the posts, which was converted again by McGeoch.
This was quickly followed by the Warriors’ fourth try when straight from the kick off they worked their way upfield.
Captain Ashley Clark managed to free her hands to offload to stand off McGeoch to score her second of the day.
Straight from the second half kick off the Warriors pushed the Saints team back and from a goal line drop out the ball was fielded by full back Haren, who duly ran the ball back round two defenders to score in the corner.
The next try soon followed with some interplay down the touchline resulting in a hat-trick try for Haren.
The theme continued with the Warriors making good ground through the combination of good carries and also the boot of stand-off McGeoch.
From a turnover the ball was recycled quickly and moved wide where debutant winger Ellie Smith gave Steel a scoring pass.
The final try of the day went to Ross who scooted over from close range after strong carries from Hannah Paterson and Megan Cother.
With the conditions getting even worse the referee at this point called the game short with a number of players suffering really badly in the cold.
Warriors: J Warrick, M Brogan, M Cother, R Parker-Clevett, H Paterson, A Clark, L Glendinning, K Warrick, N Ross, M McGeoch, S McCracken, L Steel, J Clark, K Barlow, J Haren Subs: N Jancey, K Morrison (used), J Graham (used) E Smith (used), S Ewart, A Clash (used).
