Blues make it three from three in Surrey sunshine

Newbury Blues made it three from three in the league with an away win at Guildford Gazelles, but they were made to work hard by a well drilled and aggressive opposition who had by far the best of the opening exchanges. Guildford signaled their intent early in the match and for the first twenty minutes were the hungrier team, gaining ground with some excellent line breaks and sucking the Blues into contact to create a series of overlaps. So it was no surprise when they drew first blood with a very well executed try through their backs, scoring in the corner but missing the tricky conversion.

Newbury responded well with a try of their own through Harriet Mustard, who found herself on Roxy Fauconnier's shoulder after an excellent kick chase from Meg Mason's boot got the visitors into Guildford's 22 for the first time. Chloe Hunt converted to edge the Blues ahead but the ball was still largely Guildford's and their strong running 12 was punching worrying holes in the away defence.

Sure enough, within ten minutes the pendulum had swung back towards the home team when their fly half instigated another excellent move, passing deep to her 15 to create a huge overlap and release their winger, who made no mistake in the corner. Blues head coach Joe Harwood replied by gambling with some early replacements and almost immediately they paid dividends when pacey winger Jemma Thripp was released by Lizzie Harris, beating three players and blazing a good 60 metres to cross the white wash for the third time in two games. Hunt nudged the conversion over to make it 10-14.

The game's topsy turvy rhythm continued right up until half time as another spell of sustained home team pressure led to a series of Newbury infringements and the Blues were not able to reorganise their defence in time to stop a third Guildford try. The Gazelles could very easily have had another on the stroke of half time but Thripp then earned her defensive stripes by chasing down Guildford's breakaway runner to allow Niki Paton and Harris to force a turnover in that rarest of events, a backs-only ruck.

Finishing one point ahead in a half they had dominated in terms of territory and possession was not what the home team wanted, and conversely the Blues were buoyed buoyed by the late chase down, so it was they who came out with renewed purpose. Slowly, they turned game on its head, not by piling on the points but starting to compete in the areas that count. Back rows Harriet Mustard, Lucy Mercer and Hannah Ward led the charge by making themselves a menace in both defensive and attacking rucks, and the pack completely upped the ante in the scrum, turning over more than one and rattling the Guildford pack.

The Blues have nurtured a calmness that didn't exist a couple of seasons ago, so when they won a scrum penalty during a foray into the visitors' 22 Hunt asked for the kicking tee; showing her usual complete lack of nerves she landed a tough kick to edge the Blues into the lead at a critical moment in the game.

With two points separating the teams and 20 minutes to play, on paper it could have gone either way. But Newbury had a little more left in the tank and their sense of resolve was growing. Guildford continued to ask serious questions but the Blues' back three combination of Lizzie Harris, Jemma Thripp and Sophie Dowson all made some critical tackles when it counted, and the front row performed heroics in a game rife with scrums.

With five minutes left to play Newbury dealt their hosts a hammer blow when Fi Sim ran a beautiful line off Meg Mason's pass and offloaded to Emma Swinton for her to score what would be the deciding points of the game. In the dying stages Newbury retained possession beautifully and played phases that in a manner that would have made life significantly easier earlier in the day...but they ground out a victory against a talented side despite being well below their best, and that sometimes speaks louder than anything else. It was a day for substance over style.

Scorers: Mustard, Thripp, Swinton, Hun (three cons, 1 pen)
Forward of the match: Harriet Mustard
Back of the mach: Emma Swinton