Harlequin Ladies belatedly restarted their league campaign on 18th January with a fixture against Aylesford Bulls.
Aylesford kicked off and drove deep into Quins half, but then gave away an early penalty, which allowed Harlequin Ladies to regain some territory. Aylesford fought hard but succumbed to early pressure from Quins and a nifty pass by winger Steph Gagne allowed centre Kay Rees to score a try in the corner.
After the re-start, Quins were penalised for being in an offside position, which allowed Aylesford to push forward. However Aylesford managed to knock the ball on and gave Harlequin Ladies a scrum. The scrum went against the head with Aylesford winning the ball, passing it out to the wing and going around the outside of Quins to score. The try was converted.
Mid way through the first half it was still anyone’s game; both teams were battling hard but neither were gaining significant amounts of territory. Then, with a significant push from the Quins forwards, Laura Quinn picked up the ball from the base of a ruck and popped the ball to Amy Gibbons. Amy then made a sweeping pass to Kay Rees enabling her to sprint away and score again. Jayne Goodliffe converted. Aylesford gave away a penalty for being offside deep in their own half so Jayne Goodliffe went for the kick and successfully slotted home another 3 points for the home team!
Just before half time, Quins were again punished by the ref for another offside offence. Aylesford pounced on this mistake and by keeping their passing short, got the ball to the far side of the pitch and again scored round the outside. Half time score Quins 15 – Aylesford 12.
The second half started as tightly as the first half finished with both teams trading a number of penalties. Aylesford repeatedly tried their tactic of getting the ball out wide, but were foiled on several occasions by Kay Rees, who intercepted the ball. Kay had little support on her first few runs but finally Zoe Jeanes managed to keep up with the speedy centre and was able to recycle the ball quickly from her in a ruck and pop over the line to score herself.
After the re-start there were a couple of mistakes from Quins which almost allowed, Aylesford to score again, but they failed to capitalise on our errors and Quins soon gained back the territory they had lost.
Aylesford’s heads were down by this point and Quins were keen to wrap up the match. With clever use of several replacements with fresh legs Quins kept Aylesford pinned in their own half.
Jayne Goodliffe scored two tries to add to her penalty and conversions. The first try came from a run down the wing, the other by making a short sniping run through the middle of the Aylesford defence.
Katy Strudwick also went over in the corner on her return from injury after a slick move saw her being passed the ball by Amy Gibbons.
Final Score – Harlequin Ladies 35 – Aylesford Bulls 12.
Harlequin Ladies Youth team as part of their cluster squad, were also in action over the weekend. They played against Oxford in which they won 31-10.
For more information about the Ladies team go to: www.harlequinladies.co.uk or email: [email protected] for the Youth team email: [email protected].
