Appleby smiling again as Smith in for two
Gloucester-H ..31 Richmond ........ 12
AFTER last weekend’s defeat away at Harlequins, Gloucester-Hartpury got back to winning ways in the Tyrrells Premier 15s on Saturday with a comfortable victory over Richmond Women, Kelly Smith scoring two first-half tries.
The visitors got off to a flyer with a converted try within two minutes, but Gloucester-Hartpury regrouped to complete a bonus point victory to keep them in touch with the fight for the play-off places.
Gloucester-Hartpury were forced into a late reshuffle as skipper Mo Hunt had to withdraw, Daisy Fahey came into the starting line-up and Ceri Large and Ellen Murphy teamed up at half-back, a combination which caused all kinds of problems.
But it was the pack who got the home team back into the game, hooker Connie Powell scoring off the back of a rolling maul, Ellen Murphy’s conversion levelling the scores.
A scrappy phase of the game followed with neither team really gaining the upper hand and plenty of mistakes from both sides. But England wing Kelly Smith crossed twice before half-time to give Gloucester-Hartpury some breathing space.
The second-half was also somewhat disjointed, but Elle Febrey’s try on 55 minutes secured the try-scoring bonus point and, as Richmond’s discipline started to slip, a penalty try on 75 minutes secured the win.
Richmond had the last word as Hallie Taufoou scored a fine individual try as time ticked away, but it was only a consolation as Gloucester-Hartpury ran out 31-12 winners.
Despite the win, Head Coach Susie Appleby was far from satisfied:
“I don’t think we brought the fight and dog that we needed to bring. But we’ll look at that next week and we’ll go again.”