Two of our Girls U18’s who are at Hartpury college had a really good match on Wednesday against Welwyn for Hartpury college, Devon Holt and Abbie Parsons.

Match report below:

Hartpury U18 Girls began the rugby season in style with a 55-0 victory over Welwyn R.F.C.

After an exceptionally long bus trip, the squad arrived at the ground excited to kick off their playing season. With three of the Hartpury players stepping over to play for Welwyn as their club team, we knew it was going to be a tough battle from start to finish.

Hartpury received the first kick off and were instantly faced with a physical and well drilled Welwyn defensive line. Although dominant in possession, Hartpury were forced to string a number of phases together to ensure the territory needed to eventually cross the line. Hard work from the pack also ensured pressure on all of the Welwyn set pieces, which in turn gave the backs space to attack from all areas of the field. The space was fully exploited by Abbie Brown, making two fantastic runs from the halfway line to score twice between the posts before being replaced by Millie Wood in the centre.

Although Welwyn’s scramble defence from forwards and backs alike was excellent, Hartpury came together at half time with a 24-point lead with tries coming from Brown (2), Sarah Nicholas - who added two conversions - and Jess Miller.

The second half once again saw great passion and commitment from both teams, with Welwyn having the opportunity to make good inroads into the defence with a number of penalties given for poor discipline around the breakdown. Particularly strong carries denting the Hartpury defence were seen from Vicci Cogger, in her first game back from injury.

Again having to work hard for territory, Hartpury were stopped short after an array of superb try saving tackles put in by Sydney Gregson. The latter parts of the second half, however, saw a defiant Welwyn squad start to fatigue and the Hartpury players were able to capitalise on the gaps given, with tries from Wood, May Campbell, Georgia Bradley, Devon Holt, Emily Houghton and three Nicholas conversions.

The moment of the match came as Abbie Parsons ran an effective line off fly half Nicholas. Breaking the gain line and offloading to fellow front row player Henrietta Burkinshaw, Hartpury stormed in behind the Welwyn defensive line. Moving the ball the width of the field, Parsons received an offload back inside on a fantastic short line and finished off the phase of play by tumbling over the try line in an interesting roll.

Thanks to her work rate and dominance in the set pieces, Parsons was awarded player of the match.

Final score: Welwyn R.F.C. 0-55 Hartpury College