Greyhound Ladies 43 – 8 Cheltenham Civil Service 6/1/19

By Jennie Lightowler (captain) Photo credits: Robert Jarvis

The ladies kicked off their New Year on Sunday at home to Cheltenham Civil Service Ladies. Greyhound Ladies, fielding a 22 strong side, made a determined start having lost their last 2 games. The Hereford side had long spells of possession throughout the first 10 minutes of the game, running some excellent lines through their backs and showing their strength upfront. The forwards dominated the visiting side, seeing Claire Higginson through for the first try of the game. Laura Jenkins expertly slotted the extras from out wide to take it to 7-0.

Cheltenham appeared to get more into the game, turning over some ball, and forcing a few errors, but never managed to capitalise on this, getting closed down by the Greyhound defensive line each time. An error from Cheltenham trying to clear deep behind saw fullback Alys Probert scoop up the stray kick and run the ball in. The back line stepped into action, moving the ball with ease to put winger Carly Whent over for her first of the game. Greyhound certainly found their rhythm and put Whent through for a further 2, seeing the ladies finish the first half 24-0.

The second half yielded much of the same clinical play with great link up through centre field from Sarah Bevan, Carly Phillips and Emma Downes. Cheltenham came back firing, but couldn’t seem to find the gaps in the home side’s defence. It wasn’t long before the play through centre field saw Whent cross over again taking the score to 29-0.

Flanker Michelle Ruddock was the next to cross over with a superbly timed run and demonstrating great pace. Bonnie Smith adding the extras to 36-0. A further converted try brought the score up to 43-0. Cheltenham Civil Service had a late spell of possession and after a spell of attack in Greyhound’s 22 they crashed through a gap to bring the score up to 43-5. A penalty awarded to the visitors in the last play of the game saw them add the 3pts leaving the final score 43-8.

Captain’s comments: Really pleased with how the girls performed today. So many things we’ve been working on in training that we managed to put into practice today. The support play was outstanding from everyone; our forwards were everywhere which meant our back line was able to take advantage of the mismatch and exploit the gaps. Carly Whent had a stormer of a game with 5 tries, but that was only possible because of the lines being run elsewhere from Carly Phillips and Emma Downes, the direction from Sarah Bevan at 10 and the massive shift put in by all our forwards to keep hitting that line.

We travel away to Dursely next Sunday which will be an entirely different game for us, plus we have a few missing. We’re going in to win it, of course, and if we play with the same attitude as today we will do that. We’re top of the table at the moment, but only just, so every point matters here if we’re looking for that promotion spot.

Forward of the match: Michelle Ruddock

Back of the match: Emma Downes

Opposition’s Player of the Match: Laura Jenkins

Accumulated total points: