Aylesford Bulls ladies arrived at Harlequins ladies adopted home at Old Isleworthians RFC in South west London looking to avenge last seasons away defeat.
By Max Melville-Brown
Aylesford made one enforced change from their last outing with Kirstin Brimsted starting on the wing. The Bulls would also give competitive debuts to two new recruits coming into the fray in the 2nd half. Jade Binskin-Barnes who has moved back to Kent from university where she played for Portsmouth RFC and Portsmouth University RFC and also representing the South region and Maxine Cozens also originally from Kent joins the Bulls after stints with Roslyn Park and premiership outfit Old Albanians.
The game kicked off in bright blustery conditions and for the opening exchanges the Bulls looked a little rusty having not played for the past two weekends, but it wouldn’t take long for the ladies to find their rhythm
With just over 5 minutes gone Aylesford piled pressure on the Quins line and they could hold out no longer as Fijian play maker Ema Vereivalu crashed through a small hole from 5 metres out. The front row of Becky Schorah, Vicky Sieben and Claire Phillips were already dominating the scrums and locks Michele Mayhew and Angela Smith were setting the tone for quick ball at the breakdown and quick ball from one such ruck was passed to inside centre Clair Richardson who burst through from half way only to be brought down with a high tackle 5 metres out.
Quick thinking from her centre and German national team counterpart Lisa Bohrmann led to the next score as she took a quick tap to go in unopposed. Following a set penalty move in the opponents 22 No8 Catherine Spencer hit a ball at pace to crash through two tackles for the games 3rd try.
More constant pressure let to Mayhew crashing over for the next try. Harlequins started to kick long every time they had the ball as they could find no way through the bulls strong defence this led to the next try as Rafica Schneider broke from the 22 and combined with Borhmann a couple of times to finally receive the ball back and race in from the 22.
The back row of Alice Pettitt, Liz Philp and Spencer were making in roads every time they had the ball in hand and looked like they had been playing together for years. One such foray was ended illegally in the Quins 22 and a quick tap from scrum half Katie Dootson ended the half try scoring as she scampered past two players to touch down. Philp added three conversions.
It took six minutes for the next score as Schneider received the ball out wide and touched down in the corner despite a second high tackle from the Quins full back, she was rightly shown a yellow card for this unacceptable challenge. The holes were really starting to appear as Quins really struggled to contain the pace of the Bulls backs. Vereivalu cruised though twice from half way to score two almost identical tries.
Richardson and Borhmann followed suit both going though huge gaps around the half way line. After a few substitutions Spencer found herself playing at outside centre and she soon added her second try of the day as she took a pass out wide on half way, stepped inside, bust through a couple of tackles to be faced with just the full back who did her very best to dive out of the way. The scoring was finished off with veteran Mayhew going over for her 2nd from short range. Philp added another three conversions.
The match official selected ex England U18 back rower Pettitt as forward of the match and England colleges play maker Verievalu as back of the match.
Aylesford Team: French, Brimsted, Borhmann, Richardson, Schneider, Vereivalu, Dootson, Schorah, Sieben, Phillips, Mayhew, Smith, Pettitt, Philp, Spencer.
Res: Binskin-Barnes, Ravalo, Cozens, Parker, Saunders.