Stanford Le Hope Sirens 0 H&D Owls 32

This Junior Cup 1st. round tie saw the Owls facing a team who had an unbeaten start to the season but from the kick off it was clear that the Harwich side were unphased by the home team’s reputation. The Owls’ pack quickly showed they were more than a match for their much bigger opponents by demolishing them in the first scrum. The forwards ascendancy also allowed quick ball to go to a new look back line whose quickness of passing and speed had the home team scrambling to keep the Harwich side from scoring. The pressure eventually told and following a great inter-passing run from centres Kimberley Hutchins and Courtney Bruner, full back Sybil Taunton ran through from the 22 metre line to score her first try for the club. The forwards and backs were linking brilliantly by now and
another free-flowing move from the backs soon increased the lead when Bruner dived over to finish off a quality bit of rugby from the Owls. The try was converted by Taunton.

The visitors back row of Bronwyn Skipworth, Player of the match Mimi Montgomery and Abi Cutts were dominating the breakdown creating turnover ball that the back line were always quick to exploit. A counter ruck in the Harwich 22 saw the ball quickly moved through the backs to winger poppy Flatt who sprinted past three defenders from the halfway line only to see her touch down on the 5 metre line!

She made up for this error a couple of minutes later when she bravely secured a loose ball that was quickly fed to Taunton who sprinted in from 30 metres to score her second try. As the first half was drawing to a close the Sirens started to capitalise on Harwich indiscipline and were soon camped in the visitors 22. However, the powerful running of the home team’s forwards was matched by some superb tackling and line speed. Stanford did cross the try line but the ball was held up by Harwich and at the next breakdown Naomi Dobner stripped the ball from a home forward as she charged for the line.

Stanford started the second half with increased determination but were met with stubborn resistance from the Harwich defence and soon the Owls began to re-assert their authority. Powerful running from newcomer Nicola Kington, Beth Lemessurrier and Skipworth put the visitors on the front foot and an attempted clearance kick saw an amazing catch at full speed by Taunton with fly half Amber Wadlow running a great support line to score in the corner. Further domination by the pack had the home side defending their try line but scrum half Beth Flatt found a gap to dive over to score.

Kimberley Hutchins finished the scoring, running around several defenders from her own half to score a great individual try.

This was one of the best Owls’ performance and sets the bar very high for the rest of the season.