More high drama for watching fans greeted the second round of competition. Waterloo can claim pride of place after obtaining a rare away victory over Richmond (12-24). The Londoners’ new management need to sort things out sharpish; the club now sits bottom of the ladder.
But while one of the two northern teams was savouring success, DMP suffered a worrying home loss to Gloucester-Hartpury. High scores against don’t just indicate a porous defence; they highlight a lack of primary possession.
Saracens justified your correspondent’s advice to keep your money where it’s safe. Their second successive victory by a wide margin (over the Valkyries 43-7) makes a successful challenge from the other nine clubs appear tough in the extreme.
Wasps v Lightning
There were two more remarkable games in London. Wasps, fresh from walloping Bristol Bears on their travels, found Lightning a handful at Ealing Trailfinders’ ground. The visitors managed to keep all their players on the field this time, and earned the reward of punishing a fallible Wasps performance.
Lightning put the hosts on the back foot with an eighth-minute try by Natasha Jones. A second try by the invaluable Katy Daley-Mclean raised their spirits even higher
But the award for the finest moments of the game must go to Wasps’ No 11, Tova Derk, who repeated her feat of an 80-metre run-in last week with a similar special today. In classic wing style, she combines a touch of pace with elusiveness and a refusal to be held up by local inconveniences like hard tackles.
Wasps can point to unfortunate absences to explain some of their problems. Of their all-England front row last season not one was on show in black and gold: Justine Lucas was sporting purple against them; Rocky Clerk is injured and Amy Cokayne is developing her military career elsewhere. But a 20-point home defeat is an unwelcome poser for Giselle Mather and her management team. This wasn’t the present Wasps wanted to offer their skipper Katie Alder on her 50th cap for the club.
Lightning will be buoyed by this result. Their pack dominated for much of the match and their backs weren’t outshone by the four Red Roses facing them.
There was a worrying moment in the second half when Katy Daley-Mclean left the field with her right arm in a splint. All England must hope the injury isn’t as serious as it looked. She sits on 99 caps for the Red Roses. Her likeliest replacement in a white shirt is Emily Scott, but her opponent, Elinor Snowsill, Wales’ No 10, shone brighter in the Quins-Bristol tie.
Quins v Bears
Not to be outdone, Quins provided a stack of surprises at the Stoop against the Bears. Who could have imagined them going in for their lemons 7-26 down? Bristol put together some magnificent play in the first half, their first score coming from a thrust round a ruck close to the line by Caity Mattinson. But was none better than a combined handling move of the utmost skill leaving the young Cornish full-back Merryn Doidge to go over from the far left.
Quins responded on ten minutes with a move that included two fine long passes left. Mackenzie Carson, the young Canadian flanker drove over the line to push the Bears further ahead.
Elinor Snowsill produced an outstanding piece of play to put the Bears further ahead: she inserted a clever grubber through a hole in the Wasps defence, collected it herself and ran in under the posts.
Half-time 7-26
Could Quins possibly come back from a 19-point deficit? The pack took matters into their own hands with Davinia Catlin finding a way through the defensive cordon (12-26). We had to wait till the 76th minute for the next score, and it came from the bright young No 10 Ellie Green, who had replaced Emily Scott. She spotted a gap, ran through and converted. (19-26). A pause to take the calming pill.
When it comes to tight games, the coach’s lot is not an easy one: if and when to bring the bench on. Kim Oliver introduced her two young replacement props at a sensible moment, with a scrum close to the Quins’ line. But Bristol failed to score from that promising position; indeed, they didn’t add a single point to their half-time tally. When we recall that Wasps ran away from them in the second half last week, we may detect a pattern developing.
The last few minutes were not for the faint-hearted. Bristol supporters watched in dismay as Quins turned the screw. They had to work desperately hard to achieve their two late scores. Indeed, Lucy Parker’s decisive try came after the 80-minute bell (24-26). Green once more showed her remarkable composure under pressure to make the decisive conversion.
The hosts will measure this wholehearted comeback against a first-half performance that let the Bears very nearly disappear over the horizon.
Now off to buy a pot of white paint to make Quins’ shirt numbers visible.
Results from Round 2:
Wasps 20 Loughborough 40
Quins 26 Bristol 26
Richmond 12 Waterloo 24
Saracens 43 Worcester 7
DMP 14 Glos-Pury 57
