Angels no match for Green & Black Machine

Withycombe's ladies made it six games unbeaten as one of their best halves of rugby this season sent St Austell home with nothing.

Despite a lot of early pressure with the home scrum bossing their bigger counterparts, Withycombe's handling cost them the scoring edge. Ten minutes in, Mia Humphreys righted that after some clean hands from the back of a rolling maul put her in position to finish under the posts. Becky Skinner stepped into the injured Andrea Parkin's kicking boots for the day and landed the conversion to make it 7-0.

On 21 minutes the Withycombe pack had St Austell under the cosh close to their own line again, with the clearance kick not doing much to relieve the pressure. A huge tackle from Char Williams spilled the ball loose and Sian Williams gathered it to dot down. Four minutes later her mate Claire Stoakes broke from a set piece move and made 30 metres before being knocked down, before getting up and beating two more defenders and dashing the last 20 metres to score under the posts. Skinner once again converted to make it 19-0.

On the stroke of half time Michelle Bugbee rounded out the scoring with a bullocking run from a tap penalty to cap the half off at 24-0. Withycombe rang the changes at half time but their dominance continued; six minutes into the second half a turnover in St Austell territory led to Bridget Culver spotting an overlap on the short side and feeding Sarah Carlsen-Browne to score her first try for Withycombe. Again Withycombe lacked a cutting edge at times but their intent to play was admirable; running the ball from everywhere and demonstrating some crisp handling. Eyecatching performances from Sophie Tomlinson in her first game at scrum half, Beckie Stephens and debutant Jen Brammer showed the strength in depth developing at the club, as well as supersubs Kelly Browring and Sheila King showing that big hits can come from surprisingly small packages!

Witycombe: Anna Maria Mazzieri (DoD), Michelle Bugbee, Karen Gosling, Nola Owers, Beckie Stephens (MoM), Amy Gillard, Tracey Cox, Bridget Culver, Sophie Tomlinson (MoM), Sian Williams, Char Guest Williams, Claire Stoakes, Mia Humphreys, Sarah Carlsen-Browne, Becky Skinner. Reps: Dee Travers, Ellie Richoux, Julie Johnson, Vicky Carter-Woolsey, Sheila King, Jen Brammer, Kelly Browring