Blues Book Place in Cup Semi Final

Newbury Blues demonstrated their season’s progress on Sunday by beating the team who put 48 points on them at the beginning of the season.

Having made the long trip to Devon for the second time in two weeks, Blues made an uncharacteristically slow start, with the intent to get the ball out wide resulting in a few unforced errors.

However, despite this it was the Blues who immediately began to dominate possession and territory.

Having been camped in Cullompton’s half for the majority of the first half, and with hard running lines by Becky Wilson drawing in the defence, the ball was sent side to winger Jemma Thripp who opened the scoring account for the Blues, Chloe Hunt adding the extras.

Cullompton scored just before half time having drawn the defence one way before finding their speedster on the other flank to bring them within two.

With ball in hand in the second half, Cullompton looked continuously to pass wide to their dangerous winger. The line speed and defensive solidarity of the Blues was however equal to the task, with Sophie Dowson leading the charge and putting in a string of impressive hits.

Number seven Kirsty Batten was enjoying disrupting the breakdown and overturning ball for Blues, while number eight Kat Smith’s characteristic ripping and line breaks were causing chaos in the opposition ranks.

The second half saw numerous dangerous breaks made by the Blues, through Hannah Ward, Wilson and Smith. Newbury’s second try followed one of these breaks when Emma Robinson picked quickly before powering through defenders to score.

With Blues spending the majority of time near Cullompton’s 22, it was against the flow of play that the Devon side seized on a loose pass to gain the breakaway and run the length of the pitch to score.

Now only two points ahead, Blues character shone through. With ball retention from the kick off paramount, Newbury patiently played the phases before fullback Lizzie Harris sliced through the cover to put the game beyond doubt.

Newbury will now face Old Albanians away in the semi final of the Intermediate cup in March 24th.

Tries:
J. Thripp 1
E. Robinson 1
L. Harris 1

Conversions:
C. Hunt 1
M. Mason 1