Fixture

Taffs Well RFC | Womens 58 - 19 Merthyr RFC | Womens

Match Report
15 November 2016 / Team News

Ladies XV Provide Grand Slam Weekend for Taff’s Well Teams

With all the mini, jnr and senior sides having already won their games over the weekend, it was left to the Ladies XV to provide the Grand Slam for Taff’s Well Rugby Club and they managed it in grand fashion!

With another big crowd in the house, the opening score saw joint 'man-of-the-match' Taff’s Well hooker Kayleigh Cushion busting the cover to put centre Kasey Rogers over which was quickly followed by a Georgia Fricker effort at No 8 who had an outstanding afternoon with her haul of three tries - Shauna Rees providing the extras for a 12-0 lead. The Taff’s Well girls were enjoying the monopoly of possession and after some slick passing along the three-quarters, left wing Kirsten Hicks was sent away to score the first of her five impressive tries as she sought to make use of the wide open spaces with her scorching speed.

If Taff’s Well thought that it was going to be one-way traffic, Merthyr had other ideas as they worked their way upfield for second-row Carrie Richards to crash over to get the visitors on the scoreboard at 17-5. Stung by the retort, the home side applied more pressure on the Merthyr line and after some neat interplay, Georgia Fricker went in under the posts for her second try and a score of 22-5 which looked certain to be added to when Fricker again broke down the right wing but after touching down following a charging 60m run, play was brought back as Taff’s Well were penalised for some Americn Football style blocking. The home side were again to apply pressure and from a clearance kick, Kirsten Hicks gathered and sprinted on a wide ark to outflank the visiting defence to touch down for her second five pointer to make the score 27-5 at half-time.

         Half-Time Score:  Taff’s Well Ladies 27 v 5 Merthyr Ladies


                                         Second Half

The opening second-half Taff’s Well score was a cracking individual effort from impressive hooker Cushion who broke from her own half and sold enough dummies to open a Mothercare shop which totally bamboozled the Merthyr defence to take her on a 60m run that Barry John would have been proud. Next up was another gem as from a scrum in the Taff’s Well 22, jack-in-the-box home scrum-half Ann-Marie Lawrence was ever alert to feed influential outside-half Katrin Davies who again fed outside her to send Kirsten Hicks on a 60m dash for the try-line and cash in for her third try with Shauna Rees adding the conversion.

Merthyr were not giving up and they replied with an excellent try of their own as they broke down the left wing to send winger Stephanie Cooper on a 50m gallop to the whitewash and with a successful conversion, the scoreline was now 39-12 to the home team.  The Taff’s Well girls were immediately back in the their stride with a series of scrums in the visitor’s half and a quickly taken tap penalty from 3m out set up an overlap which only needed one pass from a metre out to score what seemed would be an inevitable try but the fates had something else in store as the ball was knocked-on for Merthyr centre Rosie Taylor to show great presence of mind to pick up the ball and sprint 100m to score a great opportunist try at the other end of the field with the added conversion putting the visitors behind at 39-19.

As if you needed reminding that this was a competitive game, there were a series of three yellow cards with Taff’s Well being short of two personnel following a bit of argy-bargy and a Sharon Macdonald trip - much to the mirth of the coaching staff. With Taff's Well coping admirably with the depleted numbers, the Merthyr comeback was to be short-lived as Georgia Fricker was starting to take quite a liking to the sight of the whitewash and completed her hat-trick of tries with a typical busting 25m break which typified the trouble that the Merthyr defence were having with her all afternoon. The next try was a result of a superb bit of skill from centre Georgia Teuma who caught a high-hanging kick to take play back to the Merthyr defence in order to slip a lovely pass outside her to allow the ball to get to the electric Kirsten Hicks who again turned on the afterburners to outflank the defence and finish off another great team try.

As the game entered the final minutes, Hicks decided she wasn’t done as she caught the ball from a clearance in her own half and set off on another mazy run to score a magnificent fifth try which was celebrated with as good a strike as you would wish to see from Shauna Rees who put over a delightful conversion - much to the delight of the large crowd and which capped a great weekend for Taff’s Well with a 58-19 win for the ladies.

            Final Score:  Taff’s Well Ladies  58 v 19 Merthyr Ladies


Verdict

This was another good advert for ladies rugby with some great tries from both sides and although Taff’s Well were always in command, the Merthyr girls never gave up with flanker Caitlyn O’Brien leading from the front. For Taff’s Well, there were exceptional try scoring performances from No 8 Georgia Fricker with her three tries and winger Kirsten Hicks with her five plus eye-catching performances from prop Jamie-Lee Knight, scrum-half Ann-Marie Lawrence and outside-half Katrin Davies who formed a formidable half-back partnership which called all the shots throughout the game. Despite the try scoring exploits of both Fricker and Hicks, the 'Men-of-the-match' awards went to hooker Kayleigh Cushion  (her third in three games) and centre Georgia Teuma who between them turned on the class when it mattered most.

The girls train on Tue & Thu 7.45-8.45pm and will be using the Hawthorn School all-weather pitch 7-8.00pm during the winter months so check first if you fancy joining in. The next game however will away to Clwb Rwgbi at Pontcanna Fileds on 10th December KO 11.00am and don’t forget the 2nd XV will be playing Canton in an away friendly in memory of Damian Atkins this Friday KO 7.15pm


Dave Beese  mail  davecbwales@gmail.com

 

Match Report:  Ynysowen 1st XV 14 v 43 Taff's Well 1st XV

Match Report:  Cardiff Quins 2nd XV 5 v 46 Taff's Well 2nd XV

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