The opening fixture in the Counties 1 Cumbria League was played under the Wigton floodlights and ended in honours even with a 22-22 draw against Egremont.
The visitors, after a good performance in a County Cup defeat at Carlisle, had travelled with a good mix of established players and last season’s Colts.
In the early stages both defences were tested but ill-discipline hampered both team’s efforts until the game opened up more.
It was Egremont who scored first with George Fisher driving over in the corner but Wigton finished the half stronger, putting a lot of pressure on the Wigton defence.
They were rewarded with tries from two of their youngsters – 17-year-old winger Charlie Bell and 18-year-old full-back Rocco Okesene, the second of which was converted by Stuart Carruthers, who also kicked a penalty.
The second half was much better from Egremont’s point of view as they showed much more composure and scored two tries from Fraser McNee and Callum Aitken. Dane Richardson landed two conversion and a penalty.
Time was running out, and it looked as though Egremont had done enough when Wigton came up with a converted try to earn the draw which was probably a fair result.
The visitors were punished for some poor discipline and a mistake with skipper Richard Moffatt going 60m metres to score under the posts for Carruthers to convert.
Carruthers, 27, was making his Wigton rugby debut but has previously played both football and cricket for the town clubs.
It’s very much a new group for Wigton this season under the lead coach David Warwick and they had six Under-18s making their debuts, all former pupils of Wigton Nelson Thomlinson School.
