Double victory for Blues women at Monks Lane

Newbury ladies created a small piece of history for the club this weekend, with two women's teams running out for the very first time at Monks Lane. And though a physical, fast Wimbledon team did their best to spoil the party, the Blues' superior game control and strength in depth saw them through to a bonus point win.

Wimbledon's 5th place in the league belies their quality and it was they who made the better start in good conditions, maintaining control of the ball in the early stages and putting pressure on the Blues' set pieces, especially the scrum. Newbury showed some early flair when a cross-field kick from Meg Mason found Lizzie Harris who shipped wide, but the final pass went inches past winger Jemma Thripp's finger tips. Wimbledon duly matched their hosts with a lovely switch move off the back of a scrum that gave them the space to score in the corner and take a 5-0 lead. But in doing so they temporarily lost their influential 10 to a characteristic (and totally clean) Harriet Mustard chop tackle and it clearly rrattled them.

Newbury saw their chance to take the game by the scruff of the neck and an excellent run down the left wing from number 8 Hannah Ward almost released the dangerous Thripp. Her yards put Newbury on the front foot and allowed Jeannie Ivanov to nip through Wimbledon's defensive line in the 22. Ivanov was hauled down with a high tackle that earned the visitors a yellow card and her quick tap sent her over to bring Newbury level (Hunt was unlucky to strike the post from a hideous conversion angle).

With the away team down to 14 Newbury unleashed their ruthless streak and added two further tries, the first the result of Thripp's raw, frightening pace and the second the product of another excellent Ward break down the opposite wing, giving Ivanov an easy finish.

Three tries to the good at half time the Blues' thoughts turned to the bonus point, but within 10 minutes of the second half they found themselves with 13 players on the pitch having picked up yellow cards for repeated offside infringements and a high tackle. Wimbledon drove them back with a series of tap penalties and their flanker eventually powered over for an excellent individual finish. Suddenly the scoreline looked very different and the Blues could have easily tried to pull the shutters down, but they absorbed the pressure from the powerful running forwards and some excellent line speed from the Blues back line, combined with Meg Mason's ever reliable tactical kicking, put them into Wimbledon territory despite the numerical imbalance.

A fantastic catch and drive line out led to the try that was really the nail in Wimbledon's coffin: despite still being two players down, the Newbury pack rumbled into the 22 and Ivanov spotted the blind side defence napping to score Newbury's fifth.

Their sixth was the try of the day, a beautifully executed backs move that saw Sophie Dowson cut into the line from the blind side wing, scythe through the defence and release Niki Paton to finish things off under pressure from the covering tacklers. With the result put to bed Newbury continued to ship the ball wide, with Mason and Ivanov both seeking to unleash the pace of Harris, Thripp and substitute Lauren Blight. Fittingly, it was Thripp who had the last say, completing her hat trick in style by bursting through multiple tackles and finishing in the corner.

Scorers: Ivanov (3), Thripp (3), Paton, Hunt (2 cons)