on the road with a try at the death
Oxfordshire Women 24-31 Eastern Counties Women - 30th April 2017
Eastern Counties Women make it two from two with an impressive squad performance away to Oxfordshire Women, taking the lead for the first time in the game and snatching victory from the home team with 2mins to go.
In a game that saw the home side score 4 tries, each of which was cancelled out in turn the spoils went to Eastern Counties with Wymondham Wasps’ Holly Crook scoring the try to seal the victory on the 78minute mark having received a pass from Eastern Counties’ Forward of the match Sophia John who gave the team the go-forward ball they needed with a series of pummelling runs from the base of the scrum.
From the start of the game it was evident that this would be a tough encounter with the Oxfordshire centres making inroads into the Eastern Counties defences and indeed it was Oxfordshire who drew first blood taking a 7-0 lead with only 10 minutes on the clock. However this was immediately snuffed out by Bury Foxes’ Georgie Palmer who caught the home team napping with a quick tap and dash to the line to score Eastern Counties opening try, which was converted by Harwich Owls’ Annalise Allan.
In a seesaw game Oxfordshire restored their lead following some sustained pressure in the away team’s 22m, taking a 14-7 lead with a converted try. However Eastern Counties didn’t let this shake them and were soon back deep into the home sides territory, stringing together some impressive phase play, with Bury Foxes’ Sophia John picking from the base of a ruck and barging her way over the line, Annalise Allan adding the extras to level the score at 14 all, which remained the same until the half time whistle.
It was again the home team who scored and regained the lead early into the second half through their impressive outside centre who benefited from quick ball exploiting a gap in the Eastern Counties defences as they scrambled to realign taking the score to 19-14.
Eastern Counties again levelled the score at 19 all with West Norfolk Ladies’ fullback Georgie Lingham scoring a try on the left flank. In a familiar pattern, Oxfordshire again took the lead with their own unconverted try wide pushing the score to 24-19 with 10 minutes left on the clock.
This lead didn’t last for long with Sophia John picking up from the base of an under pressure scrum on the 22m line and powering her way over the line to score a brace of tries again levelling the score at 24 all.
Eastern Counties weren’t finished there and following yet another charge by Sophia John and offload Holly Crook raced to the line to score the crucial try, which was duly converted by Annalise Allan.
Despite the home team throwing everything at Eastern Counties in the final play of the game the team stood strong keeping their opponents out, snuffing a potential scoring move driving Oxfordshire into touch allowing the referee to blow the final whistle.
Eastern Counties Women play Leicestershire Women away at Lutterworth RFC on Sunday 7th May kick off 2.30pm in what promised to be their sternest test so far with Leicestershire sitting at the top of the table following two bonus point wins against both Cheshire and Warwickshire in the first two rounds.
Team: 15 Georgie Lingham (West Norfolk Ladies), 14 Alice Middleton (Shelford Ladies), 13 Maria Carpenter (Bury St Edmunds Foxes), 12 Claire Brickley (Wodbridge Amazons) ,11 Briony Davies (Shelford Ladies), 10 Annalise Allan (Harwich Owls), 9 Georgie Palmer V/Capt (Bury St Edmunds Foxes), 8 Sophia John (Bury St Edmunds Foxes), 7 Mimi Montgomery Capt (Harwich Owls), 6 Natalie Palmer (Bury St Edmunds Foxes), 5 Jasmin Clark (Bury St Edmunds Foxes), 4 Naomi Dobner (Harwich Owls), 3 Sami Rackman (Bury St Edmunds Foxes), 2 Kaylee Williams (Bury St Edmunds Foxes), 1 Charly Green (Wymondham Wasps)
Replacements: 16 Nikki Ramsdell (Bury St Edmunds Foxes), 17 Mary Hegarty (West Norfolk Ladies), 18 Tekura Maeva (Lakenham Ladies), 19 Holly Crook (Wymondham Wasps), 20 Sonia Knowles (Lakenham Ladies), 21 Steph Hanratty (Bury St Edmunds Foxes), 22 Florence Wilkinson (Ipswich)
Scorers: Georgie Palmer 1T, Sophia John 2T, Georgie Lingham 1T, Holly Crook 1T, Annalise Allan 3C
Forward of the Match: Sophia John, Back of the Match: Alice Middleton
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