Visitors show aggression to steal win

Sun. 17th November. South West North 1 Westbury Ladies 0 Newton Abbott 59

Newton Abbott had a long coach trip to visit Westbury Ladies for the first time the two teams had met. 

This was set to be a great game of rugby, with the top of the league taking on the newbies. The fog was rolling in disguising the Westbury White Horse while the players and supporters shivered in the cold.

Newton Abbott kicked off and started as they meant to go on with some aggressive rucking, winning the ball from Westbury and passing it out to their speedy backs who crossed the line. The try was converted, making the score 0-7 to the visitors, seeing Newton Abbott dominate the first 15 minutes. They were strong at the rucks and in the scrums. Westbury Ladies fullback, Rachael Skinner, was forced to make some try saving tackles more often than the home team would have liked, as Newton Abbott broke through their defences.

Newton Abbott’s second try was made from winning a Westbury Ladies scrum, making the score 0-14. This was followed in quick succession by a further two tries and conversions,making the score 0-28.

Westbury Ladies started to make some adjustments to their scrum and kicking game and held Newton Abbott off from scoring any further tries in the last 20 minutes of the first half.

After a regroup at half time, Newton Abbott were looking dangerous again and scored a further two tries in quick succession, making the score 0-42 to the visitors.

While the score might not show it, Westbury Ladies had come on leaps and bounds from their previous week’s game against Devizes, with their tackling, scrums and line outs flowing better. Newton Abbott were starting to get frustrated by Westbury Ladies stopping them from scoring tries, even though they were able to keep hold of the ball and stop all Westbury Ladies’ attacking play with ease.

Newton Abbott weren’t done for the day as they scored a final three tries. It really wasn’t the day for the home team as the last score belonged to Newton Abbott, with the final score sitting at 0 – 59.

Congratulations to Alexis Harris and Hannah Crossley who were awarded forward and back of the match respectively for their all-round strong performances. A special mention was made to Maddie Bias for playing in both the forwards and backs. Also, massive congratulations to Lizzie West on her first game for Westbury since returning from maternity leave and Rachael Skinner for her first game after returning from long term injury.

The ladies are away on Sunday 8th December to Plymstock Ladies. As always, we hope to see you all there.