Ladies 1st XV 101 - 0 Tewkesbury Ladies

Player of the Match - Jennifer Mckeown

Tewkesbury Ladies 0 v Stourbridge Ladies 101

Squad: Adele Littler, Hayley Slimm, Stephanie Beddall, Rebecca Jenkinson, Katie Sutton, Rachel Webley, Wendy Jackson, Vickie Merrick, Helen Simonds, Caroline Jackson, Kate Yates, Abigail Wilkes, Jen McKeown, Jess Everhurst, Lauren Johnson, Barbara Palmieri, Jess Faulks, Deb Harris, Melissa McCalla.

Tekesbury started the game well, retaining the ball within their larger pack of forwards. The more mobile Stourbridge pack halted the home sides’ driving maul, from which Wendy Jackson wrestled the ball clear and sprinted over the try line unchallenged from 20 metres out, Caroline Jackson converted, 0-7.

From a Tewkesbury lineout on halfway the Stourbridge jumper stole the ball, which was then quickly transferred through the backs to wing Jess Everhurst who sprinted clear of the defence to score. 0-12. An almost carbon copy repeat steal of lineout ball saw opposite wing Jen McKeown score in the other corner, 0-17.

Despite scrimmaging against a larger pack and a consistently slow put in by the home teams scrum half, Stourbridge managed a strike against the head to feed the now rampant Stourbridge back line. An excellent miss move saw Abz Wilkes pierce the Tewkesbury defence to score. 0-22
Too many unforced errors in particular knock-ons from poor catching and passing by both sides led to a scrappy period allowing Tewkesbury to stem the tide of points and edge back into the game. The Stourbridge forwards halted a maul on the Tewkesbury 22 and once again Wendy Jackson sprinted clear to score, 0-27.  Turnover ball generated by the combatative Stourbridge pack saw another try from close in, to end the half, 0-32.

Stourbridge killed the match off with an explosive start to the second half. From halfway centre  Katie Yates took a crash ball to burst through the opposition defence to score from 50m out. Katie then turned provider after 3 sublime handoffs, offloading to Abz Wilkes to score under the posts and for Vickie Merrick to convert. 0-44   The Stourbridge back line was now scoring at will with both Abz Wilkes and Jess Everhurst scoring a brace of tries each; with 3 conversions by Vickie Merrick,  0-70.

The Stourbridge forwards did not let the backs have all the 2^nd half glory with Katie Sutton scoring from 20m out. Tewkesbury to their credit did not give up and continues to contest the match by keeping the ball close to their forwards. From a scrappy ruck Lauren Johnson rescued the ball and a quick pass found Jen McKeown who shrugged off a number of tackles to offload to Melissa McCalla in support, to score, 0-82.

When Tewkesbury did manage to get the ball out wide through their back line, Barbara Palmieri intercepted a pass out on the wing to score a breakaway try from halfway, 0-89. Katie Yates almost directly from the restart split the home sides defence to score from halfway, 0-96; Vickie Merrick adding 6 more successful conversions. With time almost running out Barbara Palmieri scored in the corner to pass the century mark for Stourbridge 0-101.