Oban Lorne Ladies bowl them over
Oban Lorne Ladies 45 Garioch 5
HISTORY was made on the back pitches at BT Murrayfield on Saturday as Oban Lorne Ladies lifted the BT National Bowl title with a hard-fought 45-5 win against Garioch RFC.
The Oban players and coaches have been working extremely hard over the past few weeks to build on winning the National League Division 2 title and have been training up to five times per week to prepare for their final appearance.
Having impressed both in attack and defence against a variety of opponents this season, the team knew that if they played to their potential on Saturday, as in the 29-5 semi-final win over Howe Harlequins, the team would have a very realistic chance on lifting silverware on Saturday.
Head coach Corrie Louw and team manager Darrell Williams fielded a very strong starting line-up at Murrayfield led by team captain Laura ‘America’ McCormick. Being introduced to the team were 17-year-old back row Eilidh Shearer, who has progressed well through the rugby set-up at Oban High School. In fact 12 of the 22 players fielded on Saturday attended Oban High School and have been part of the school and clubs fantastic girls’ rugby set-up.
Oban made a shaky start to the match in front of a large crowd and found themselves 5-0 down after only a few minutes. Garioch spun the ball wide from a line-out to find their dangerous winger Liadh Broughton in acres of space. Broughton used her impressive pace to finish off out wide and gifted her side an early lead.
The poor start to the game compounded with giving away a couple of penalties and free kicks failed to dampen Oban’s spirits as they hit back almost immediately. Stand-off Lucy Stewart broke free from 35 meteres out, side-stepped a couple of covering defenders to finish off an outstanding solo try. Stewart converted her own score to put Oban 7-5 ahead.
Oban pressed the Garioch defence to add to the scoreline but were finding Garioch hard to break down. A great opportunity was passed up around the 20-minute mark as first Laura MacCormick was high tackled close to the line followed by an Ellie MacNiven knock-on from the resulting penalty as the tryline beckoned. Oban were offered another opportunity after turning the ball over at a five-metre scrum but Garioch frustrated the ladies in green and managed to ease the pressure with a good clearing kick.
Referee Mhairi Hay was officiating the match very well and was allowing the game to flow, making for an exciting and open contest to watch.
For most of the first half the match was played near the centre of the pitch. Garioch were trying their best to spin the ball wide to their speedy wingers while Oban were carrying well in the close quarters with powerful runs from the likes of Erika Skofca, Georgia Mitchell, Laura MacCormick and Camilla Leslie.
With it looking like remaining a two-point game, just before half-time prop Ellie MacNiven’s powerful run gifted Oban some good possession close to the tryline. Some quick and quality passes from scrum-half Audrey Barr and Lucy Stewart eventually let the ball find centre Kirsty Sinclair who scored her first try of the day.
Another Stewart conversion took the score to 14-5. Ellen Barlow did have a break away from the kick-off but the team could build on another promising phase of play. The score remained at 14-5 to Oban in what had been an extremely competitive and hard-fought 40 minutes of rugby.
At the break, Corrie Louw instructed his team to be more dynamic and gain momentum in possession, knowing his players had the ability to finish off well if they got in behind their opponents.
Garioch looked to hit back as they dominated the start of the second half and almost scored within the first few seconds of play. Oban’s outstanding defence, led by always reliable flanker Ailsa MacLachlan along with Eilidh Shearer, kept the Garioch attack at bay.
Oban winger Ellen Barlow relieved the pressure on her side with another trademark run upfield. Ellie MacNiven made amends for her earlier mistake near the tryline by finishing off and other phase of fantastic handling to touch down beneath the posts, giving her side their third try of the day. Again Stewart converted, extending the lead to 21-5.
The Green Army were now well on top and were dominating most areas of the match.
Oban went close to their third try of the game as winger Sophia Rosinski failed to gather a Skofca pass with the tryline in sight.
Kelly Lamont had been putting in an assured performance at fullback with some fantastic tacking and fielding off the ball from Garioch clearing kicks.
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ARGYLL and Lochaber women were to the fore as Hillhead/Jordanhill won the Sarah Beaney Cup at Murrayfield on Saturday.
Oban’s Abi Evans was a star of the show as she grabbed four tries but she was assisted by Aimee Johnston from Appin and Anne Young from Helensburgh, both of whom have stepped up to senior rugby after playing for Hillhead U-18s this season. Rachel Whyte, originally from Fort William, was also a key member of team, starting the game at scrum-half.
Last year’s Sarah Beaney Cup champions Hillhead/Jordanhill took on Watsonians as both sides looked to finish the season on a high.
It was the Glasgow outfit who took the win at a canter with five first-half and seven second-half tries.
Hillhead look good value to retain their title early on as Watsonians struggled to contain the Glasgow side and it took a little over five minutes for Erinn Foley to blast over after some patient build-up.
It wasn’t long before Hills added a second as Abi Evans’s pace saw her over in the corner after breaking from half-way. Five minutes later she added her second in similar fashion and her side had a commanding early lead at 15-0.
Watsonians weren’t downheartened, however, and set out gaining territory.
They made it over the line after 20 minutes only to be held up and conceded a penalty from the resulting scrum for Hillhead to clear.
The Glaswegians took the opportunity from the resulting set-piece to attack from deep and had nearly instant success, Ema Barlow this time speeding down the right flank to stretch the lead even further.
Further first-half tries from player of the match Hannah Smith and another from Abi Evans for her hat-trick meant that Watsonians would face a gargantuan task in overturning the deficit in the second period. Half-time: 32 – 0 Watsonians knew they would have to start fast if they were to get back in the game and they did just that when Molly Wright capped off some patient phase play to score in the corner.
However, Hannah Smith crossed for her brace down the touchline before securing her hat-trick more directly, pushing through tackles to take the score to 44-5 after the conversion and take the game well beyond ’Sonians.
The Edinburgh side would get on the scoreboard again though through prop Wright’s second try but from that point on it was one-way traffic. Both Abi Evans and Hannah Smith would grab fourth tries before the 70-minute mark to remove any doubt as to which team would be taking home the silverware.
Watsonians had a late foray deep into Hills territory but couldn’t finish their play off on this occasion and it wasn’t too long before Lucy Mills was adding her name to the scoresheet.
Hillhead would get one last try before the clock went red when Louise McMillan sped over from long-range to seal an imperious 12 try to two victory.
The victory means Hillhead/ Jordanhill retain the title and complete the double after winning the BT Women’s Premier League in January. Full-time: 68 – 12 Report: SRU
❒ Also playing, for Greenock Wanderers in the BT Women’s Plate final, were Emma and Hannah Grace, from Mull, but their team lost 34-17 to Glasgow University.