Ladies bounce back to cup success

Newbury romp through in Women's Cup tie

NEWBURY LADIES bounced back to winning form to reach the third round of the RFU’s Women’s Junior Cup with a 55-3 win at Chipping Sodbury.

Newbury had beaten the home side 42-0 and they were in the mood to repeat that after suffering their first league defeat of the season against Abbey.

Coach Joe Harwood took the chance to rest several senior players and give newcomers Alice Hill, Adelaide Lewandowski and Roxy Fauconnier chances to impress as Newbury were rarely troubled by an inexperienced but often fractious home side.

Stand-in skipper Megan Horwood opened the scoring and set the pattern for a first half that saw the visitors score 31 points without reply with Carrie Smith, Hannah Ward (2) and Niki Paton adding touchdowns and Chloe Hunt three conversions.

Harwood rang the changes at half time and Sophie Dowson made an immediate impact when she jinked her way through three defenders to score under the posts with Meg Mason taking on kicking duties.

The home side got onto the scoreboard via a penalty, but the one-way traffic resumed with Adelaide Lewandowski notching her first Newbury try with Laura Smith running in one and helping to set up another for Chloe Hunt after the home side had a player sin-binned for aiming a punch at Harriet Mustard.