Mary's Topple Much Improved Yeovil

St Mary's began the return fixtures of the league campaign by welcoming Yeovil to Northwood Park. in the fist meeting, Mary's had run out convincing winners, but this was a different Yeovil side and the improvement was noticeable from the start. Yeovil kicked long, St Mary's carried over their own line and Yeovil spent the next 14 minutes camped inside the home sides's 22. A strong breeze, handling errors and good pressure preventing any escape until Mary's finally worked the ball wide to winger Ellie Clarke who raced away to score from 50m. Conversion missed 5-0. Mary's then got on top looked to put their game plan into action. But this time it was Yeovil who stood strong in defence. The home side did have the advantage in the scrum and when they were awarded a 5m scrum, the pack went looking for points. With the ball being controlled really well at the base, No8 Boe Meaton dropped on the ball to score Mary's second try. 10-0, conversion missed. SMOBL then had their best period of the game and they scored their 3rd following a fantastic piece of individual skill by Jade 'Gambo' Gamlin who chased her own kick, collected one handed and aced away to score under the sticks. Still trying to find her lungs after the try, she hit the post with the conversion and Mary's were leading 15-0. The scrummage continued to be a great platform for the hosts and with 3 minutes left of the half blindside flanker Victoria Shakspeare picked up when the ball squirted out and raced away to score wide out. In typical Gambo style,she kicked the hardest conversion and at half time Mary's led 22-0. Second half and Yeovil could easily have folded but they came back superbly and once again Mary's spent 15 minutes stuck inside their 22. The hosts defence has been solid all season and this was a real test, which they stood firm. The second half was quite bitty from then on with injuries stopping the flow until with 12 minutes left Chloe Tucker scored an excellent solo try when she cut a great line and scorched away. Conversion good, 29-0. Then with 2 minutes to go Tucker popped up on the other side to take a pop pass from Ellie O'Sullivan and have too much pace for the defence. Conversion good again, 36-0. Time for the restart,but prop Danielle Hand had had enough and she thumped the ball into the next field with the kick of the day and Mary's were home 36-0. This was another solid performance from St Mary's who go into Christmas with an uneaten league position. Still lots to work on and a real test on Sunday with a cup match at Cullompton, who are flying high in the league above. Lots of credit to Yeovil who played really well and will cause lots of problems for teams in the remaining league fixtures. For Mary's some excellent peformances from Boe Meaton, Chloe Tucker and Victoria Shakspeare who had the best 50 minutes I've seen her play for St Mary's. Player of the match though was Michaela Excell who played in 3 different positions and was excellent in all of them. Last game of 2018 is on Sunday. Please come along and support if you can