Ladies triumph in error-ridden game
After the excitement of winning at The Rec a fortnight ago, Bath Rugby Ladies welcomed Reading Abbey to Lambridge for what was their first home game of the Championship 1 campaign.
Bath welcomed back scrum-half Emily Codd from representing Great Britain Tag rugby, second row Heidi Silcox who has been overseas with her role in the Army, and also Ireland Rugby League player Lucy Juffkins who gained a start at outside centre.
Bath began in confident mood having played some excellent rugby so far this season, and it only took three minutes for centre Juffkins to burst through the defence to dive over for the first score, converted by captain Sarah Holloway.
For the next 20 minutes the game was an even affair with Bath struggling to move through the gears and Reading doing their best to put pressure on. Then, from a scrum just inside the Reading half, number eight Daisy Pearce-lyons picked and fed Codd, who drew in the defence and unleashed speedster Bethan Wakefield on the right to fly down the touchline for her fifth try of the campaign. Bath went in at the break with a 12-0 lead.
Head coach John Gould made some changes to the back-line, giving 1st XV debuts to young playmaker Anya Small and centre Rebecca Wye, hoping to add some creativity and guile to the attack. However, it was Reading who scored first in the second stanza as a mistake in backfield lead to an easy try, raising the spirits of the visitors.
Bath battled hard to get a handle back on the game, and after a period dogged by unforced errors Bath moved the ball out wide and replacement winger Abbie Watkin accelerated through a last ditch tackle to dot down in the corner. With Bath hunting the bonus point victory they upped the tempo, and a great off-load by Small on the left to Silcox gave her just enough space needed to step back inside and cruise over the try-line from 15 metres out.
Reading did cross once more before the final whistle, but Bath came away with the spoils after a hard fought, but error ridden game, to win 22-10. Players of the match went to flanker Ellen Witt who is a real stand out for the team this season, and Codd who marshalled the others well all day.
In another ground-breaking move by Bath Rugby Ladies, the 3rd
XV played their first ever competitive fixture as they welcomed Cheltenham North in the first round of the Inner Warrior Series. With a huge number of players on the books, Bath are able to offer rugby for all different levels of player.
The Inner Warrior Series is a development league so provides the perfect opportunity for those brand new to the sport, those returning from injury, or those wanting to learn and develop a new position or new skills.
Bath named a full squad of 22 players for the historic fixture, scoring four tries through winger Nia Grundy (2), full-back Olivia Jones and flanker Ashleigh Newbold, and coming away with a hard earned 22-5 victory.
This Sunday, the 2nd XV travel to Devonport Services for Round Five of the league, then the following Sunday the 1st XV make the trip to former Premier 15s club Richmond, and the 3rd XV make the short trip along the M4 to face Supermarine 2nd.
■ AVONVALE travelled to Dorchester for their first ever league fixture against this opposition and got off to the worse possible start when they lost two players in the warm up. Flyhalf Finn O’reagan and full-back Josh Meager both pulled up with injuries to leave Vale with only one replacement.
Dorchester started strongly and had their first try on the board after five minutes. Vale came back at them and, after pressurising the Dorchester fly-half behind his own line, flanker Will Clark dropped on the ball to score.
Dorchester piled on the pressure and after Vale had lost one of their props to injury they scored three quickfire tries to take a 24-7 lead. Vale would not give up and came back to score a try through scrumhalf Alex Pugh.
Dorchester scored two tries early in the second half to lead 38-12 and Vale then lost replacement prop and captain Hayden Rogers, but they refused to lie down and came back to score two tries of their own through Pugh and second row Charlie Fallows to secure a bonus point.
Vale went in search of another try to try and secure a losing bonus point, but having to play with 14 men took its toll and as Vale chased the game mistakes came and Dorchester broke away twice to leave Vale with a 52-24 defeat.
Coach Dave George commended the players for their grit and determination in securing a bonus point after such a poor beginning to their day.
■ AVON retained local bragging rights with a closely contested 28-24 win against Oldfield who had the consolation of two bonus points. The early proceedings were dominated
by Oldfield and it was no surprise when they deservedly took the lead as Dave Mchugh burrowed over for a try after several rucks close to the line. Ali Lane added the conversion.
Good handling by Avon saw them respond by creating the position for Jonny Batchelor to close the gap with a penalty after an earlier attempt had rebounded off the posts.
But Oldfield had the edge in the set pieces and extended their lead with another try from a pick and drive by Max Regan.
After Josh Hiscott was held up just short of the line, Avon suddenly sprung into life as flanker Ian Burnell burst through midfield and produced a magical off-load out of the back of his hand which allowed winger Iain Parris to scamper clear for his seventh try in eight matches.
With Batchelor adding the extras, the gap was now reduced to two points but Avon continued their unfortunate habit of conceding a try on the stroke of half-time as another Oldfield pick and drive saw Richie Gibson claim the touchdown.
Avon scored a magnificent counter-attacking try after the restart when crisp passing amongst the backs led to man-of-the-match Guy Palmer feeding winger Matt Thresher who showed great determination to touch down in the corner. Avon then took the lead after
Oldfield illegally collapsed a powerful lineout drive close to the line and scrum-half Kiddie Sheikh showed great awareness to score from the quickly taken short penalty.
Although Sheikh was injured in the process, veteran Damo Sawyer took over and added his brand of experience and motivation to Avon’s cause.
Once again Oldfield came back strongly and regained the lead as skipper Rhys Redman collected their bonus point try from a line out drive. This seemed to spur Avon on inside the last quarter as Dan Cousineau and Zak Harwood made strong inroads which allowed flyhalf Rob Fitch to coolly slot a drop goal to open up a single point lead.
With Avon now in the ascendancy, they were denied their fourth try by a determined Oldfield defence but Batchelor put the result beyond doubt with a final penalty to close the game out for a well-deserved win.
Afterwards, coach Kai Harwood said: “Whilst this wasn’t our best performance, we played with huge grit and determination to get back into the game with two breath-taking tries and showed the depth of our squad with four enforced changes from last week.
“This should stand us in good stead for our visit to St Bernadettes next week.”