England Deaf Men retained the Broadstreet Cup after beating Wales Deaf 15-12 at Harlow RFC on Sunday, whilst England Women Deaf lost to their Welsh counterparts in the first women’s deaf international in the northern hemisphere.

Full back Tom Walker bagged England’s first try, cantering in from 20 metres and powering his way through the Welsh defence to hand the home side a 5-0 half-time lead. A penalty try on the hour mark extended England’s lead to 12-0, and a Graham Sage penalty proved pivotal, as Wales scored two late tries to reduce the final deficit to three points.

“You have to be over the moon when you beat Wales, whether you scrape over the line or win by 30 points,” said England Deaf head coach Sean Fletcher. “The main plus to take from the weekend was that we weren’t bullied out of it like we have been in the past by Wales. We stood our ground and fought it out.

“I do think we fell short; we didn’t play to our best and I think we could have dominated the game a lot more, but Wales had their tails up, so the lads done exceptionally well to hold out at the end.”

Earlier in the day England Deaf Women lost 12-5 in the final play of their game against Wales, as the sides took part in the first women’s deaf international in the northern hemisphere, opting for the shortened format over 15-a-side.

Fletcher added: “We would like to get to the position with Wales Women to be able to play 15 against 15 and to have that competitive full international. They are developing and we want to help them.

“We would like to take a 15-a-side deaf team to Wales in March and encourage them to integrate the deaf girls they have into a local 15-a-side team so they can experience a full international deaf game in addition to the sevens game played last weekend.”

TEAMS
England Deaf Men: Beck, Beesley, Bingham, Day, Griffin, Hunt, Lygo, Morris, Page, Phillips, Sprules, Turner, Unwin, Fisher, Healy, Nelson, Martin, Peuble, Phillips, Rowland, Sage, Thorne and Walker,

Wales: Watkins, Parry, Gallagher, Jones, Jukes, Price, Thomas, Mills, Vella, Tucker, Cudd, James, Healy, Shallish, Preece, Green, Dowding, Higginson, Roberts, Yeates, Garland, Moran and Butler.

England Deaf Women: Francis, Hanratty, Holdsworth, Hussell, Iaquaniello, Kingman, Kyle, Linehan, Lyon, Mills, Platt and Watson.

Wales: Hopkins, Melbourne, Boaler, Wilkinson, Field, Greenway, Preece, Alaw, Lois, Rudd, Rowlands.