Bristol Ladies will hope for a change of fortune with next week’s fixture, having faced the top three sides in the last few weeks but they remain 4th in the league. Last Sunday, a young and inexperienced Bristol Ladies side showed grit and determination in their close defeat to Premiership leaders Richmond Ladies.
With both sides missing key international players due to the autumn fixtures, this meet was always going to be a close one. Richmond’s game started as well as they could have hoped for, with Holly Myers darting through the Bristol defence within the first 5 minutes to score the first points of the afternoon, with Amy Turner converting.
A high tackle by Laura Kapo was deemed enough for a yellow card as Richmond were taken down to 14, and Bristol took advantage of the situation. Bristol Prop Daisy Travers, playing out of the position on the wing today, was on the end of some well worked passes as the away team made use of the overlap. Snowsill’s kick to convert missed narrowly, bouncing off the post.
Richmond crossed the lime twice again in the half taking the half time score to 19- 5, although the score line wasn’t overly reflective of the game. Bristol spent a lot of time in the Richmond half, with their own handling errors and drop passes stopping them for equalling the score going into the break.
Half time score: 19 (3 tries, 2 conversions) – 5 (1 try)
Bristol came out ready to take back control of the game, with lots of pressure and multiple attacked in the Richmond 22, however it was once again Richmond who got the first score of the half, with a strong run by winger Myers, offloading to Anna Caplice. The score turned to 26 – 5.
Bristol then set about their come back, utilised their strong set piece to send Clara Nielson over the try line, followed quickly by Phillipa Tuttiett showing off her excellent footwork and pace to skip through the Richmond defence. Snowsill converted one of the two, taking the score to 26 -17.
With everything to play for both teams picked up the pace, with end to end rugby and pressure from both sides. Bristol were unable to hold off one Richmond attack culminating in a team try for the home side, giving them some breathing space. However it wasn’t long before Sydney Gregson then got her name on the scoresheet. Gregson used her storming pace to break the Richmond back line, darting over the line to set up a tense final 5 minutes for the home side.
Richmond defended stoically, with Bristol looking close to crossing the line on several occasions – however one final handling error led the Richmond kicking the ball out of play, and the final score 31 – 22.
Bristol Forward of the game: Caryl Thomas (voted for by players)
Bristol Back of the game: Philippa Tuttiett (votes for by players)
Bristol Head Coach LJ Adams said after the game: ‘That was a great game of rugby, and I’m really proud of the way we played today. It wasn’t the result we wanted, but the performance was spot on. After our last two games we needed to come out with more self-belief and we did. We had so many players out of position today, with our prop Daisy on the wing, back row Olivia Jones playing in the backs too – but each player stepped up today and took responsibility. Our young backrow played fantastically well today and Chantelle Miell also stepped up in her new position of scrum half. We have some things to work on this week in training, as we look to tweak some of attacking play and eliminate those handling errors. We’re excited for Aylesford next weekend, and hope to get back on track for that top four finish with will take us into the play offs!’
Game Score Stats
5m – TRY Richmond, Myers 5 – 0
5m – CONV Richmond, Turner 7 – 0
7m – YELLOW Richmond, Kapo
8m – TRY Bristol, Daisy Travers, 7 – 5
15m – TRY Richmond, Caplice 12 – 5
15m – CONV Richmond, Turner 14 – 5
30m – TRY Richmond, Braunerova 19 – 5
HALF TIME
55m TRY Richmond, Caplice 24 – 5
55m CONV Richmond, Turner 26 – 5
59m TRY Bristol, Clara Nielson, 26 – 10
64m TRY Bristol, Philippa Tuttiett, 26 – 15
64m CONV Bristol, Elinor Snowsil, 26 – 17
67m TRY Richmond 31 – 17
75m TRY Bristol, Sydney Gregson, 31 – 22
Teams
Bristol
1 Caryl Thomas, 2 Clara Nielson, 3 Abbie Parsons, 4 Amelia Buckland-Hurry, 5 Kayleigh Armstrong, 6 Becki Belcher, 7 Poppy Lietch, 8 Sue Neumann, 9 Chantelle Miell, 10 Elinor Snowsill, 11. Daisy Travers 12 Bryony Cleall, 13 Philippa Tuttiett, 14 Olivia Jones, 15 Sydney Gregson
16 Kathryn Buggy (for Nielson, 60m), 17 Natalie Lewis (for Neumann, 60m), 18 Emma Lacey (for Travers, 65), 19 Trish Brown (for Armstrong, 50m)
Richmond
1 Sammy Crandell 2 Chloe Edwards 3 Ellisha Dee 4 Debs McCormack VC 5 Zoe Saynor 6 Sam Voyle 7 Anna Caplice 8 Sam McCarthy 9 Amy Turner C 10 Tess Braunerova 11 Jade Wong 12 Laura Kapo 13 Stacey White 14 Holly Myers 15 Oli Davies 16 Lil Knight 17 Alicia McComish 18 Kiri Lose 19 Naomi Hampton
Venue change for Next fixture:
Sunday 15th November – Aylesford Bulls, 2:30pm kick off
Due to a waterlogged pitch, this game will now be played at:
Trowbridge Rugby Club
Paxcroft
Hilperton
Trowbridge
Wiltshire
BA14 6JB
Match report by Emma Bacon, Bristol Ladies
