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Ladies on the up

Ladies on the up

Alexandra Wallace18 Jan 2017 - 18:08
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Guernsey Ladies 27 - 0 Canterbury

Embracing the same need for revenge as the men, the weekend was made complete by the Ladies' 27-0 home win over Canterbury 24 hours later.
Canterbury, who started the day fourth in the table, are the only side to beat Chris Griffiths' team his season and understandably both the coach and his squad were desperate to make amends.

In the end, they secured the bonus point which keeps them in the driving seat at the top of NC South East South One and pleased their coach no end. ‘It was a really good, dominant performance,’ he said.‘The handling of the backs in fairly slippery conditions was excellent while the forwards led from the front – I had asked them to get across the gain-line which is exactly what they did – and we also tightened up our rucking in the second half.’

Canterbury had been delayed by a flight cancellation and the game finally kicked off more than two hours late at 2.35pm. Canterbury enjoyed plenty of early possession but Guernsey never looked like conceding and before long captain Jemma Crouse caught out the opposition with a quick tap and went through to score the opening try.

A second try arrived just before the break, Chelsie Blondel getting the ball down and a 10-point interval lead was quickly extended to 15 just three minutes into the second half with a fine try from inside centre Hannah McLennan.

Guernsey were reduced to 14 for 10 minutes when Heidi Mahy was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle and Canterbury used their numerical advantage to apply some pressure, but just could not score.

It was another trademark break from Fiona Power that brought the fourth try and Tanya Scholtz then secured the bonus-point fifth try, showing good pace to exploit a gap in the defensive line from 25m out. On a difficult day for kickers, Crouse added just one conversion, but it was a big and important win for the Ladies who are looking ever stronger.

Team:
Andrea Harris, Sophie O'Connell, Heidi Mahy, Ellie Whittles, Sarah Woodington, Tanya Scholtz, Fiona Power, Eleanor Woodward, Jemma Crouse (C), Fiona Ashworth, Jillian Smith, Hannah McLennan, Chelsie Blondel, Anneka Saunders, Vicki Rang.
Replacements:
Emma Rayson, Janelly Le Maitre, Aiga Vecmane, Michaela Rabey, Fiona Drape, Michelle Schofield.

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