Life's tough in tier 2 for Newbury Women

This week’s league fixture against top-of-the-table Thurrock was a tough battle for the travelling Blues.

A team that has been cemented in this league for many years proved their position with a 37-3 win over the Blues.

Drawing on their strengths, Newbury held their own in the scrum and lineouts and forced Thurrock to use the space on the perimeter of the pitch to score. The pace of their wingers caused problems for Newbury but despite this the Blues were never seen to drop their heads and continued to fight and close down the Thurrock attack in the centre of the pitch and cause trouble for the home team.

A lazy Thurrock defence gave away a penalty but possession was returned to the home team as the kick didn’t make touch. With momentum having got the Blues into the Thurrock 22 they were not going to leave without points. A defensive push caused Thurrock to fumble and a scrum given to Newbury for a knock on. It was within this scrum that Newbury were given penalty advantage the boot of Georgia Smith put Newbury onto the scoreboard with a clean kick for posts.

Newbury continued to battle in the second half and Thurrock were only able to run two tries past the hard defence of the Blues.
When attacking, hard ball carries from the likes of Abbie Leadbitter and forward of the match, Zoe Vaughan meant the Blues were constantly breaking through the defence but the well drilled and strong Thurrock team were able to shut play down.

A week off for the 1st XV next week but the 2nd XV have a game away against Reading Abbey.