Newbury Women’s 2nd XV faced Didcot Ladies for their penultimate league game this season. They put on an epic display of skill and teamwork as they came away with a 53-0 win.

However, it was Didcot who started off strongly with a steal of possession at the ruck. Newbury were able to shut this momentum down as they applied pressure and caused a kick to touch but a penalty against the Blues forced them to defend on their own try line. Ellie Ferrie cleared the ball away with a controlled kick moving Didcot away from the danger zone.

From this point Newbury took control of the game with Laura Hewett charging down the pitch with the ball to get the Blues into the away 22 and in with a chance of their first points. Ball was recycled and quickly shipped to the wing where Roisin Winston closed the line to start the score board off at 5-0.

The reset saw Nat Bridges punch through the Didcot defence and a partnership between Vicky Thomas and Catrin Owen continued the momentum but this was to be short lived as play stopped after a late hit from Didcot at the back of the ruck. The Blues maintained possession at the scrum and the back line brought play over the gain line followed by River Lewis taking three Didcot defenders with her as she crashed through with ball in hand.

After a knock on Didcot got a chance at attacking and with a further penalty against Newbury they had a second chance to score. This opportunity was taken from them by various knock ons which allowed Newbury to scrum their way out of the danger zone. Ball was sent out to Jenny Buckley on the wing who made light work of the rest of the pitch only to be tackled before the line.

Winston’s second try came as Didcot were focusing on pressuring the ruck and left space for the Newbury wingers to exploit. Fanny Fouin and Ellie Ferrie controlled play in the middle before Winston was released to ground the ball.

The next section of play was a bit unstructured but after advancing forward in the capable hands of Aimee Clark the ball was released to the backs and Fouin moved the ball close to the line and in the mess of a ruck Ferrie was able to score to push Newbury further in the lead.

The Blues domination continued and tries came from Fouin, Lewis and Maisie Litchfield in quick succession but a set of penalties soon after saw Newbury marched back twice, and a strong break from Didcot saw one of their players storm through the Newbury defence. A great last minute tackle saw Lucy Warburton prevent what looked like a certain try, and Newbury were now defending in their own half. This was short-lived as Chloe Hunt and Clark moved the ball to space and the backline ran the ball away from the threat of a Dicot try.

Newbury continued to rack up points as Litchfield broke the line again and Hattie Digweed increased the score to 34-0 with her try. Further tries were run through a now tired Didcot defence as Harris and Litchfield both scored. Within the last moments of the game Harris scored a further try to pull the score up to 53-0.