Mary's blow over Westbury

St Mary's Ladies welcomed Westbury Ladies to Northwood Park on a very blustery afternoon looking to build on their recent win over Devizes Ladies.
with Mary's not having a game since the opening day game of the season defeat to Hornettes, were chomping at the bit to play!

After the early exchanges going against the wind Mary's had more than enough possession and territory, but failed to convert it into points. Westbury on the other hand decided to run from with in their own 22 at a scrum to move blind use the hands for their winger to beat two would be tacklers for a 50 meter run to score inn the corner, conversions was missed.

Handling wasn't easy in the strong wind for either side, this didn't put off Mary's from playing a good wide supporting game as this paid off when Katie Sully on her return after serious illness since January to score the first of her 3 tries of the afternoon, Laura Rugman converted.10 mins later Sully grabbed her second from a good pushover try against the much bigger heavier pack of Westbury, Laura Rugman also converted.

With all the back row forwards working tirelessly in the loose, stopped any Westbury attack at source and the Mary's backline all working together to close any space that was given out wide.

Mary's turned around 14-5 up at half time and now with the wind sort of behind them looked to push on and build more tries.this didn't take too long, as good interlinking between forwards and backs allowed the space for Laura Rugman to run almost 45 meters, but with the covering defence closing in passed to the ever young supporting run of Jen Appleford to score her second of the season. Th e knackered Rugman missed the conversion attempt.

Westbury's heads didn't drop at all and continued to show more gutts and commitment as the game wore on, which is a credit to all the players and coaching staff who put in the hard work behind the scene's at Westbury.

Mary's now in search of a 4th try squandered 2 or 3 opportunities with the final pass not sticking or White line fever, but again from the base of a scrum Katie Sully picked up from 10 yards out to barge her way over for her well deserved Hat Trick.

The whole team defended superbly throughout the game so much so the Lucy Bowering had an arm chair ride at fly half with some ferocious and abrasive tackling from Harriet Mustard. Also a great debut by UWE Student Jo Smith on the wing and also at inside centre showed lots of promise.The new look front row of Wray, Yip and Golton were superb in the loose and at scrum time against the bigger pack.

Sarah Wray receiving the players player of the match and Lisa Yip receiving the coaches player both were very well deserved! Excellent Performance by everyone still room for lots for improvement but heading in the right direction. Next up Old Red's Need I say more??