Cowell on fire with treble to see off the Bears

HEATHER Cowell grabbed a hat-trick as Harlequins proved too strong for Bristol Bears.

The Bears defence survived a strong start from Harlequins but on 23 minutes the ball spilled out of the side of a scrum and was fed through the hands to winger, Cowell who fended off the covering tackle of Cat McNaney to finish in the corner.

The hosts responded well and found themselves inches short of the whitewash after a fantastic break from Lucy Attwood, but the Bears were met by a resilient Quins defence, who forced a knock-on, on their line.

Cowell would cross for a further two tries in the first half, the first coming from a length of the field break by Quins and the second after Shaunagh Brown broke through the midfield and the ball was kept alive by hosts for the winger to dot down in the corner.

The Bears came out fighting in the second half and strong carrying from Poppy Leitch and Daisie Mayes in particular gave the Bears go forward ball, however, Quins went on to get another with Zoe Saynor powering over from short range.

Bristol responded with their first try of the game as Elinor Snowsill intelligently drew two players on the blindside to set off Mayes, who crashed over the line to give the Bears a faint glimmer of hope.

Harlequins quashed any hopes of a Bears fightback with three scores in the final ten minutes as Georgia Newman, Brown and Bethan Dainton all crossed to seal the game.

The Bears had the final say though as Caity Mattinson found Lilly Stoeger-Goddard to score.