Newbury Women 5 Richmond 24

A sunny Saturday at Monks Lane saw beautiful conditions for Newbury Women's 1st XV return for their first home fixture of the season.

Newbury kicked off and dominance within the lineout was immediately shown as Newbury gained possession from a fumbled initial catch. Richmond stole possession after a collection of well-set phases of play but the Blues defensive pressure forced Richmond back but they remained with possession. Attempts were made by the away team to gain ground but the touch line and the Blues defence caught the winger short and Blue possession was regained.

The first half was filled with both teams attempting to put the first points on the board but to no avail. The Blues continued to link phases of play up the field but Richmond were able to shut down the final finishing metres and prevented the Blues from taking a lead. In a similar vein, Newbury blocked any Richmond advances as they once again tried to utilise the width of the pitch to advance. Covering tackles from the likes of Megan Horwood and Vicky Murdoch stopped these advances and provided further opportunities for the Blues to have possession.

Richmond came back from half time with a change of mind set. They very quickly got turn over from the restart and utilised knock on from a sneaky Newbury turn over to attack the corner of the pitch and put the first points on the board.

This lead put further fire into Richmond’s attack and led to them scoring a further 3 tries against a tiring home team. The Blues picked themselves up once again and continued to hold ground in line outs and scrums alike.

The final try was from the Blues who stole possession from Richmond as their back line fumbled the ball out from a ruck. Offloads from Meg Mason and Rachel Martin allowed the Blues time to set up play and charge forward through the centre of the park. A penalty was given to Newbury who utilised the opportunity to continue their charge up field and allow the final touchdown to come from forward of the match, Megan Horwood who was very much assisted by back row partner, Becks Reeves.

Both the 1st and 2nd XV have next weekend off to recover and prepare for away fixtures against Henley and Basingstoke. They then return to Monks Lane on 15th October to face Sutton and Epsom.