Ellingham & Ringwood women too good for Amesbury

Women’s NC 1 South West

Amesbury women 5
E&R women 34

ELLINGHAM & Ringwood’s women continued their unbeaten start with a strong away performance and a 34-5 win at Amesbury in Wiltshire.

On a cold day, Ellingham started strongly and began to build up a sustained period of pressure. After winning a penalty five metres out, E&R’s Libby Peak, playing out of position at scrum-half, tapped quickly and powered over for the game’s opening try. Captain Georgia Smith converted to give Ellingham a 7-0 lead.

Ellingham continued to defend well and restrict the home team’s chances. Then Amesbury gave away another penalty 15 metres out. After taking it quickly, Lydia Barber drew the defender well, allowing Samie Nicholls to touch down and open a 12-0 lead.

The final score of the half came from some excellent phase play from Ellingham, which drew in the Amesbury defence. Fly-half Georgia Smith had quick ball, which she released to wing Charlotte Harvey, who stepped inside to score in the corner for a 17-0 lead.

After the break, Nina Hoadley found the space she needed and sped away to run half the length of the pitch and score under the posts.

After this, the home team came back strongly, and they started to put Ellingham under pressure. They eventually opened up an overlap, and number eight Emily Sheppy showed good pace and power to score in the corner and reduce the deficit.

Ellingham then tightened their defence and started to apply pressure to the opposition again, resulting in several turnovers. From one, Ellingham moved the ball quickly into space for Fleur Howcroft to make a great run before offloading to Nina Hoadley, who ran a fantastic inside supporting line to go in for her second of the afternoon.

With the score at 29-5 and only 15 minutes to play, Ellingham gained turnover ball and, after two phases, Libby Peak picked up the pace and beat three players and scored the afternoon’s final try and make it 34-5.

After the game, Ellingham vice-captain Jess Lawrance said: “It’s pleasing to come away with a victory today. The team worked for each other all afternoon and put a lot into place that we’ve worked on in training over the past few weeks.

“It’s also great to see how far our newer players have come on. They stood up and performed, which is great for their confidence and the team as a whole.”