Tilly Churm (Photo: Ainsley Bennett)
Playing down the slope Featherstone received the kick off and immediately showed their intention, with a strong set of drives down field. Ten metres out from the try line Amy Smith put in a cross field kick, on the last tackle, which Gemma Walsh collected under the posts to touch down.
Encouraged by the perfect start, the home team made in-roads into the Bradford half with controlled/error free rugby and were further rewarded when Sinead Peach collected the ball, showed a neat side step to go over to score.
The away side tried hard to get back into the game but Featherstone’s defence was solid ,with Jess Hammond leading the way with some great hits.
Mid-way through the half Emma Slowe ran hard onto a short pass from Andy Dobson to score, goal added by Amy Smith.
Five minutes later and the same 2 players were involved again, this time Emma providing the pass for Andy to go over, goal Amy.
(Jas Hazell) Photo: Ainsley Bennett
Bradford now had the benefit of the famous Post Office Road slope, and were on the scoreboard 5 minutes into the second half with a converted try, which was shortly followed by a further 4 points.
Featherstone were quick to respond and progressed up field and a long pass out wide from Andy was gratefully received in style by Sarah Dunn to dive over.
The away side came back again with another 6 pointer and with only minutes remaining made a length of the field break which Michelle Greenwood chased down brilliantly to tackle the player 10 metres short of the line, from the play and a dubious pass out wide the ball was touched down, but there was conversion.
Featherstone held out for a well-deserved win 24-20!
The Featherstone coaches applauded their team’s efforts and gave a special mention to Tilly Churm and Jas Hazell on their debuts.
Player of the match for Featherstone was Emma Hardy who caught everything, ran strongly with the ball and made at least 3 one on one try saving tackles!
