An unusual Saturday game for the Ladies this week which was a double header for the club with the Ladies kicking off at 12.30pm and the Men at 2.30pm. The Ladies started well and were in control throughout with some excellent attacking play and stout defence when needed. Gemma Parish opened the scoring for the Ladies after 3 mins when they turned over Cheltenham on their own 22 and a slick passing move across the field put Gemma in at the corner. 5 – 0. Play was in the between the 22’s for a while after this with both teams making mistakes or being turned over but on 20 had a scrum on the 5 metre line. After dominating previous scrums they went for the push over and only an unlucky bounce took the ball away from the number 8 just as the scrum made it over the try line. A penalty was given and Cully took another scrum. They didn’t go for the push over this time but did push Cheltenham back that allowed for some great passing that finished with Molly Pepper scoring. Enya Surtees got the conversion from just outside the 15m lines. 12 – 0. Play reverted to between the 22’s until just before before half time when Cheltenham finally had some concerted pressure in our 22 and went over in the corner for an unconverted try. 12 – 5 and that was the score at half time.

Cully started the 2nd Half quickly and thought they had scored a try after 42mins when Charlotte Green went over but the Ref had seen the grounding before Cheltenham got hands under the ball. It didn’t matter from the drop out Cully steamed forward and after 5 or 6 phases Boe Minn was going for the corner until a high tackle stopped her. A tap penalty was taken and Enya Surtees boshed her way through 2 tacklers to score. 17 – 5. For the next 15 mins all the rugby was in the Cheltenham half. Turnovers and mistakes the only thing keeping Cully out. On 60 minutes Cully had a 5m scrum to the right of the posts and a couple of passes almost put Boe Minn across the line bua good tackle stopped her. Quick recycling got the ball to Esme Bagwell who went in at the corner despite a head high hit from behind. 22 – 5. Cheltenham came back into the game but couldn’t find a way through our defence and on 75 minutes Jess Phillips settled it with a try in the far corner after yet another dominant scrum in the centre of the pitch. 27 – 5. The score stayed that way till full time.

Overall it was probably the most complete performance I have seen from the ladies this year. They controlled the game for long periods and defended well when they needed to. The ladies only have 2 games left. Away to Ding Crusaders on the 23rd and Home to Newbury on VP’s day April 5th. See you all there.