Stamford Women’s Rugby beat Boston Rugby Club in the Papa Johns Cup
With an emphatic 54-12 scoreline, Stamford Women showed almost total dominance in last Sunday's home match against Boston Ladies in the first round of the RFU/Papa Johns Cup.
With less than a minute on the clock, a clear out from the ruck from Daisy Attley was fed to Jess Gargan who in turn pin-pointedly passed to the charging Sarah Mitchelson who had started her run from her own 22 metre line.
Mitchelson was supported by Liberty Ashdown and, following a deft one-two pass between them, it was Mitchelson who took hold of the ball and swiftly covered half of the pitch to place it over the Boston try line to make it 5-0 with less than a minute on the scoreboard.
The home team's second try also came from Mitchelson who, in contrast to the long distance she had to run for her first try, was passed the ball from skipper Gemma Alcoran five metres from the Boston try line and placed it once again over the try line after fending off four defenders.
Next up over the try line was Alcoran courtesy of a pop-up pass two metres out from the commanding Mitchelson.
Boston fleetingly found their form of a team playing in a league higher than the home side and scored a converted try.
However, Stamford extended their lead before half-time when from a penalty on their own 22 metre line the ball was passed to Alcoran who charged up the pitch before unselfishly passing to the supporting Attley who sprinted over to make the half time score 20-7 to the home side.
The second half started in the same way as the first with a try from the majestic Mitchelson within a minute of it starting which was converted by Attley.
Kayna Penrose-Toms was next on the scoresheet after charging from the opposition five metre line over the try line to place the ball under the posts.
Special mention has to be made of the amount of the controlling tackling from throughout the home side which was one of the main factors of the dominance of the game by Stamford.
Anmarie Mullen was next to trouble the scoreboard when she went over the try line in the corner after yet another powerful move from the purple, black and whites.
Mitchelson produced another piece of assertive running towards and over the Boston try line to score her fourth try of the match.
Alcoran then scored her second try of the game before Attley rounded off the match with a penalty.
With a second try by the visitors, the final score was 54-12 to Stamford.