Stamford Rugby Club’s women’s side are victorious against Bedford Blues

With an apparent labelling of underdogs by their opposition, Stamford Women travelled to Bedford Blues on Sunday and came away with a very well deserved 32-24 win and, with the knowledge that on the day, they were anything but the weaker team.

The 18-player Stamford squad started off the match brightly and, following a scrum near to the Blues' 22 metre line, scrum half Daisy Attley picked the ball up from the feet of number eight Chantelle Miller and sent a pinpoint pass to fly half and captain Gemma Alcoran who looked up and spotted a route through to the home try line and started her run.

Expertly fending off several defenders, Alcoran was able to run through the defensive line and place the ball over the line and between the posts. The resulting conversion from Attley saw the score at 7-0 after 10 minutes.

From the restart, Stamford continued pushing towards the Blues line but came unstuck after a poor pass was intercepted by a home side centre who ran the length of the pitch to place the ball over the visitors' line.

This try sparked the home team into action and constant pressure on the Stamford defence finally resulted in Bedford scoring their second try and saw them go into the lead for the first and only time in the match.

The purple, black and white army were spurred into action from this try and, wanting to regain their lead, they upped the attacking moves and were eventually rewarded with a penalty in front of the posts from which Attley slotted the ball to add on three points.

Stamford regained the lead after 32 minutes when, from a scrum just inside the home half, the ball was passed out to Saran Mitchelson who quickly passed it to the charging Jess Gargan.

Gargan went on to power her way through and past five defenders and placed the ball over the line to score Stamford's third try and put the visitors into a 17-14 lead at half-time.

Stamford started the second half with the bit in their teeth and this resulted after three minutes in Catelyn Etherington scoring in the corner and securing the visitors a try bonus point.

Five minutes later, Stamford extended their lead further when surging moves forward from both Brogan Cranfield and Nash Hadley resulted in the ball being passed through the line to Alcoran who, seeing a gap in the defensive line, put the gas on and sped towards and over the Blues tryline to get her second try of the match.

Stamford once again extended their lead when a penalty was awarded to them on the home 22 metre line.

Alcoran took hold of the ball and from a tap penalty stuck the ball under her arm and expertly fended off several home players before putting the ball down over the line and securing her hat trick of tries.

A late surge from Bedford resulting in two tries was not enough to upset the scoreline too much and Stamford ended the match very well deserved and worthy winners.

Stamford Women are back in action this Sunday when they start their defence of the NLD Cup when they travel to Mansfield.