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With the visitors on Sunday being Mowden Park Sharks, a team that rattled over 100 points on their own ground against Hartlepool only a couple of months ago, the omens weren’t too bright. However, the Hartlepool Ladies proved to all those who made the effort to watch them on a cold Sunday afternoon that, given time and a lot of effort, they can make a difference, with a courageous display against a team that contained players of international honours, finally losing by the narrow margin of 15-5.
It was all out defence for the first quarter of the game for Pools which, to a player, they excelled. The back row of Claire McQuilling, Nicki Parker and Vikki Putson tackled their hearts out to keep there more illustrious opponents frustrated. Pools grew in confidence, and eventually opened the scoring with a line out steal from Sarah Hammond, for Captain Emma Lloyd to release her back line, through quick hands from Louise Atlee and Mairaid Nee, before flying machine Jennifer Edwards sprinted away from within her own half to score. Mowden resumed their pressure, but were thwarted constantly by Pool’s excellent defence, with Nee pulling off a try saving tackle on the left side of the field. The constant pressure eventually told with the petit Mowden left winger finally finding space to bring the scores level. Pools nearly re-took the lead with Lloyd making a clever break on the blind side before kicking through and chasing, only to be beaten to the touch down by the Sharks defence. On the stroke of half time, Pools were exerting their best spell of pressure, with Vicky Hind, Laura Berry, Kim Dickson and Kay Murray prominent. Unfortunately, a loose boot saw the ball break to the Sharks who broke up field, before their hooker through a dummy to score.
Mowden started brightly at the start of the second half, and were rewarded with an early try through their replacement stand off. The remainder of the half was spent mainly in the Pools half of the field with waves of attacks from the visitors, constantly repelled by an aggressive defence that would have made Winston Churchill proud. Pools made a couple of isolated breaks to relieve the pressure, one a 50 yard break from Edwards which lacked the support to continue the move up field. Despite their dominance, Sharks could not add any further tries, with the game eventually ending in near complete darkness.
This was one of the proudest displays seen by this writer in many years of watching rugby at Mayfield Park and collectively the whole team should have the same pride for their performance throughout. The Ladies now need to re-group and continue this performance to the end of the season and, if they also put the same effort into training, the first win of the season will not be too far away.
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NEXT FIXTURE
Hartlepool Rovers
VENUE
Home Meet 115pm, ko 3pm.
DATE
30th August
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