Smith and Evans shine as silverware heads west
THE super powers of the women’s club game met in the Sarah Beaney Cup final for the third consecutive season, and for the first time it was the team from the west that claimed the silverware.
Murrayfield Wanderers also defeated Hillhead/ Jordanhill in the league this year to claim their third Premiership title on the trot, so the sense of elation mixed with relief for the Glasgow side at the end of this tense encounter was entirely understandable. Winning captain Louise McMillan said: “I’m so proud of the girls. Before this match we always talked about how we deserved a victory but today I think we earned it. For a while, I think people have been questioning whether we can actually beat them, but we always had that belief that we could.
“When we played them in the league decider, we switched off and couldn’t find a way to get back into the game, but when we got opportunities in this match we made sure we took them. There was a bit of panic at the start of both halves, but we were able to pull the girls aside and say, ‘let’s flick that switch and get going again’.”
Wanderers eased into a 10-point lead through a Lisa Martin penalty and a Jennifer Cramb try, which was converted by Helen Nelson. But they were then caught on the hop by Hillhead/Jordanhill’s dynamic centre duo of Hannah Smith and Abi Evans, who cut some devastating swathes through midfield during a devastating 10-minute spell.
First, Smith showed pace, power and balance when breaking from near the halfway line and scoring under the posts. Seven minutes later she provided the pass for Evans to plunge over from close range, and three minutes after that Evans showed she can do it from distance as well with a magnificent 60-yard run-in.
Murrayfield pulled the deficit back to six points through a second Martin penalty just before the break, and after a dominant third quarter the Edinburgh side eventually got their reward on the hour mark, when Eilidh Sinclair managed to scoot over on the right and Nelson nailed another tricky conversion.
Martin added another penalty with seven minutes to go to put her side back in the lead, but Hillhead/ Jordanhill weren’t finished yet and it was the excellent Smith who deservedly grabbed the winner.
Earlier in the day, on the back pitches, Stewartry Sirens scored 12 unanswered second-half points to overcome Stirling County 29-17 in the Women’s Plate final; while Garioch defeated Kirkcaldy 29-20 in the Women’s Bowl final.