Creighton produced a remarkable recovery to beat Wigton 25-23 in their opening Counties 1 Cumbria clash at Sycamore Lane.
At one point Wigton led 20-5 but the home side fought back and eventually won with a dramatic late try.
There had been contrasting build-ups with Wigton happy with training numbers and warm-up preparations.
By contrast Creighton’s head coach Richard Liddle had some concerns heading into the game knowing that the pre season had not gone to plan, no warm up games and sporadic numbers at training meant his team were not fully tested.
Creighton gave debuts to Owen Gill, Harry Watson and young Will Langley who was following in the boot-tracks of his father and grandfather at the club while Wigton were missing head coach David Warwick who was on holiday.
Creighton started confidently and a weighted pass from fly half Matt Rogers to centre Tom Riley split the Wigton defence. Support from winger Joe O’Donnell kept the move going and a popped pass to new captain Keenan Foster saw him going in for the opening try.
Wigton responded well gaining the upper hand in the line-outs while some strong carries up front saw them move the ball wide and create problems for the Creighton defence.
It was a penalty from Josh Leeson which got Wigton on the scoreboard, however, and from this they really started to dominate.
Wigton swiftly moved the ball wide, finding space on the flanks and scored tries on 20, 32 and 38 minutes through Ollie Lewis, Alistair Gaitskell and Josh Nicholson, one of which was converted by Leeson.
Creighton had been under the pump but they got themselves a lifeline just before half-time. A penalty for offside was kicked to the corner by George Dudley and a well-worked catch and drive saw Joel Davidson go over for the home side’s second try.
The third quarter of the game after half-time was very tight with Creighton using their subs well to inject life into the game.
Fifteen minutes from the end, still trailing 20-10, Creighton put into effect a training ground move from a penalty which saw debutant Watson’s strong carry end-up in the hands of Taylor whose try was augmented by a conversion from Dudley.
With the clock ticking down Creighton were awarded a penalty just inside the Wigton half and Dudley held his nerve to level the scores with the resultant kick.
With just a minute left it looked as though Wigton had won it when Cory Bouch put over a penalty for a 23-20 lead.
Then in a thrilling and dramatic finish Creighton won it. A tap and go went towards the middle of the pitch, followed by an extravagant 15 metre spin pass from hooker Davidson to the on-rushing Dudley round the corner.
Dudley then found speedster Riley who left the defenders in his wake to dive over in the corner and spark loud celebrations by supporters and players alike.
