Wigton opened their account in the Counties 1 Cumbria League with a 62-5 home win over Keswick A.
They had something to prove after losing their first game of the season to Creighton and were up against a young Keswick side, still buoyed by the previous week’s win.
But Keswick knew this was going to be another stern test for the young, inexperienced side, and so it turned out to be.
Right from the kick-off, Wigton set out their game plan, playing with power, offloading and moving the ball through the hands quickly to the edges and their speedy back three players made big inroads to the Keswick half.
From a resulting scrum, Wigton managed to get to the edge and scored. Over the next 20 minutes, Wigton used this advantage and scored four more tries to lead 24-0.
Initially Keswick were shell shocked from Wigton’s performance but eventually started to create some passages of play themselves getting into the opposition 22 only for there to be an inaccuracy.
Wigton capitalised on it and scored two more tries to go in at half time with the game virtually won at 38-0.
Right from the restart Wigton continued from where they had left off and put pressure on Keswick to force mistakes, which they punished and quickly added two tries to bring-up the half century of points.
Great credit must go to this young Keswick side. They never gave up or let their heads drop fighting for every scrap of possession.
But with the amount of defending they had to do, it started to take its toll, and the injuries started to mount up, especially in the front row.
Unfortunately, this led to the scrums going uncontested. Wigton scored another try to take the score to 55-0, but Keswick fought back valiantly and made their way into Wigton’s 22 and eventually through their pack scored an unconverted try by Lewis Davies.
Wigton scored one more converted before the end to complete a comprehensive victory.
Going by this display, Wigton will be one of the teams who will be competing at the top end of the table come the end of the season.
The pleasing aspects for Keswick was their never give in attitude, which the referee commented on at the end of the match. Sam Holt had a very good senior debut on the wing and is another player who has come up through the youth ranks at Keswick.
Afterwards Wigton coach David Warwick said: “We played with a lot of pace and kept that tempo throughout the game.
“We moved the ball wide at every opportunity and entertained a large crowd by scoring 11 tries – 10 of them converted by Rocco Okesene.
“The young Keswick team kept going and showed commitment right to the end.
“The only downside for us was a hamstring injury to Oliver Lewis, and the fact that we’ve no game this Saturday to try and build momentum. It’s proving a challenge to get fixtures and keep everyone involved.”
The Wigton tries were scored by Okesene (2), Dave Miller, Lewis, James Paisley, Charlie Bell, Josh Nicholson, Sam Middleham, Stephen Harris, Dan Cuzens and Elliot Armstrong.
Nineteen-year-old Bell was awarded the Wigton man of the match, sponsored by Dave Paisley Butchers while Keswick’s elder statesman Carrick Wharmby was their chosen man of the match.
