| Vagabonds Ladies | 24 |
| Broughton Park Ladies | 19 |
The Ladies were on the early flight to Douglas in order to take on Vagabonds of the Isle of Man in the early kick off on Saturday.
Park enjoyed a superb first half performance dominating possession with their pack creating a solid platform for the team to play off. This stretched Vagabond’s defence allowing fly half Daryl Grey to make a half break before offloading to her combative half back partner Louise Sinclair for the score. It was more of the same from the restart as Park didn’t allow Vagabonds any ball and wore their defence down. The second score came as the pack kept it amongst themselves with Georgia Sutherland driving over from close range.
Following this Vagabonds finally enjoyed some possession putting Park under the cosh for the first time in the match. They engineered a hole in Park’s defence which allowed their winger to break the defensive line, however she was hauled down by Park’s full back Nicky Cowell. After her try saving tackle Cowell picked up a loose ball following a Vagabonds clearance and used her electric pace to beat three defenders to gain some important meters. From there the pack made several big carries to cause holes to appear in the Vagabonds defence, allowing Sutherland to break clear and race over from 30 meters out. As the end of the first half neared a mistake in Park’s midfield saw the ball go loose, allowing Vagabonds to secure it and go on to open their account, making the scores 7-19 to Park at the break.
As the second half began the weather began to deteriorate and as a result Park’s willingness to play from anywhere on the pitch began to work against them. In a classic tale of two halves it was Vagabonds’ turn to enjoy the majority of possession and turn the screw. As errors began to creep into Park’s game due to the weather, Vagabonds played the conditions and slowly began to chip away at Park’s lead over the course of the half.
Entering the final ten minutes Park tried valiantly to defend the lead they had established in the first half, however Vagabonds experience at this higher level told and they were able to complete their impressive comeback in the 77th minute, winning the match 24-19.
Credits
Dave Hanby & The Author
