Sale Sharks v Loughborough Lightning
Bristol Bears v Leicester Tigers
On the day England men lost for the first time to Italy the RFU was presented with a second crisis of a quite different order.
In a game between clubs placed 8th and 9th in the table, Bears could field a side well short of full strength and still stroll to a completely one-sided victory.
Genevieve Shore has already confirmed there is no question of adding a tenth club to the league. But what about reducing to eight? That is not a sign of strength.
By the time I turned my attention to the other match (just over 20 minutes in), Bears had already achieved their bonus-point with four tries, including two for Demelza Short. Her first, a very early break clean through to the line, was a worrying start. Back to this west-country game later.
Over to Sale
This was a crucial contest for both sides. Lightning had Helena Rowland restored for the first time this season. Her battle with her opposite No 10, Holly Aitchison, was one of many highlights.
The closeness of the contest, the quality and determination of every player were in keeping with so many recent matches.
From the start Aitchison was prepared to offer long passes and searching kicks, but the first fruits fell to Lightning. Carmela Morrall made a fine break to feed Alev Kelter who ran through. 0-5
Even better, Christine Belisle’s delicate tip- on gave Lilli Ives Campion a chance she accepted. 0-14
It took Sharks twenty minutes to get off the mark. They made several stabs at the line, then Rhona Lloyd accepted a chance on the far side to cross. 5-14
This was obviously going to be a game where every point counted; Helen Nelson was asked to pot a penalty.
Half-time: 5-17
Sharks restarted very fluently, just as Tom Hudson would have suggested.
Lloyd made a huge break through midfield for Erica Jarrell-Searcey to finish the job. The next moment, a penalty kick to the corner led to a neat line-out move. The ball returned to the front where Amy Cokayne had all the room she needed. 17-17
Visions of yet another draw swam before the eyes.
It was Lightning’s turn again. They attacked ruthlessly; this time it was skipper Daisy Hibbert-Jones who crossed wide out. 17-24
Errors now were to prove costly. Alicia Maude was deemed offside at a promising kick ahead.
A try by Katie Childs brought the sides level again (24-24), and Sharks were dominating up front. These days they can bring on people like Gwen Pyrs (newly restored to health) to help the cause; she scored a try. 31-24
Into the last ten minutes, and steady heartbeats were essential.
.
Lightning countered powerfully once more. They tried two clever stabs through the line. The second ended in a try to Bulou Mataitoga on the far right.
All now depended on the conversion. Sadly for Nelson it proved too far out. 31-29.
That left enough phases of play to shred the nerves.
But once Nikki O’Donnell had indicated time, Sharks were happy to balloon the ball into touch.
Result: Sharks 31 Lightning 29
Player of the Match: Holly Aitchison
Teams
Sale: 1 HARPER 2 COKAYNE 3 JAMES 4 TALLING 5 JARRELL-SEARCEY 6 DONALDSON 7 PERRIS-REDDING 8 HOGAN 9 ORTIZ 10 AITCHISON 11 S. CAMPBELL 12 HOWARD 13 WILLS 14 LLOYD 15 NELSON
16 HYNDMAN 17 PYRS 18 ROACH 19 FRAY 20 KASOLO 21 RELF 22 HOGAN- ROCHESTER 23 CHILDS
Loughborough: 1 CURPHEY 2 TREDER 3 BELISLE 4 IVES CAMPION 5 EHRECKE 6 BOYD 7 HIBBERT-JONES 8 LUTUI 9 DAVEY 10 ROWLAND 11 WESTCOMBE-EVANS 12 MORRALL 13 KELTER 14 MATAITOGA 15 NELSON
16 STATHOPOULOS 17 YOUNG 18 SAGAPOLU 19 BRODY 20 WAUDBY 21 MAUDE 22 BERMUDEZ 23 SCOTT
Afterthoughts
This was Sharks’ third win in succession; a real turn of the tide.
At this stage of the season people start glancing at the few fixtures to come. Who’s got the easiest run-in to the line? Trailfinders look to have the toughest.
Huge credit to the groundstaff who transformed last week’s quagmire into a perfectly playable surface.
Back to Bristol
I had left Shaftesbury Park with the Bears coasting four tries up. By half-time they had reached 40-0.
They had no wish to relax their grip, so backs and forwards shared another 28 points around.
Result: Bears 68 Tigers 0
Afterthoughts
I’m not sure how the the RSPCA would react to this treatment.
A glance at some stats: Bears in eighth place have 20 points. Tigers in ninth have one.
Their onfield points differences are striking too: Bears on -81 are nothing to write home about, but Tigers on -488 are over 400 points worse off.
I recall Worcester being in similar toils in the early years of the Premier 15s. They were ousted. And this is a more professional age, so we are assured.
On a more pleasing note, the game marked Rocky Clark’s debut as a lead commentator. She might have had an easier match to describe. Seeking explanations for constant errors can be taxing.
But at least she had Hannah Botterman on co-comms. How often do we have both commentators who know exactly what is going on at the set-scrum?
