MATCH REPORT: WOMEN*S BLUES VS BATH
- Marged Williams
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
[Written by Mel Morley, St John's College]
In their penultimate BUCS Premier South fixture of the season, the Women*s Blues faced the University of Bath, with whom they last faced at home in October, securing a bonus point win but by our own admission leaving points on the field. With just the 4 point gap between these teams, a win here would go a long way to securing us a very respectable 5th placed finish in a league littered with PWR level players and program backing.
Sophie Shams (Blue #400) kicked off proceedings, the pitch on a slight upwards incline for the first half, and unfortunately it was not long until our upwards battle became figurative as well as literal as Bath’s centre scored from a scrum set play. Conversion was good, making it 0-7 to Bath after 10 minutes. Thankfully, this score would turn out to be Bath’s only points of the affair, with the Blues bouncing back to put on a dominant display for the rest of the match. We levelled the score after this season’s top try scorer Lilla Berry (Blue #412) made a 30 metre carry before offloading to an oncoming Kat Vincent (Blue #428) who scored under the posts. Mel Morley made the conversion. 7-7.
Both backs and forwards made dominant carries, and fast offload-heavy play saw our opponents accumulate penalties and ultimately yellow cards throughout. Following one such penalty, the Blues had a lineout on Bath’s 5 metre line, and on hearing whispers of their forwards’ plan to not engage an oncoming maul, Morley took the ball in the air before exploiting the gap that had been created just in front of her, charging through to score our second try.
In the second half we had momentum and the hill on our side. Bath’s ill-discipline continued to provide opportunities to kick, and with the lineout functioning well, Oxford’s backs had plenty of of opportunities to play the ball through hands and progress us further upfield and into the Bath 22. With the support of the Panthers team who had just come out 40-0 victors against Bath’s 2s team having joined us on the sidelines, another forward try came from loosehead Estelle Onwuka (Blue #423), who powered past oncoming traffic to dot down.
Now permanent residents in the Bath half, Oxford continued to mount pressure in search of a bonus point try. After multiple dominant carries from forward pods, this came from fly-half Shams, cutting left to slice though the gaps in the unstructured defence. Kick was good to bring the score to 24-7. In the final 5 minutes of the game, Lilla Berry completed the rout by capitalising on a Bath knock-on and sprinting the rest of the pitch to score. Mel Morley comfortably slotted the conversion and the Blues saw the game through with a 31-7 scoreline at the end.
Next week, the Blues have their final league fixture away at Swansea before entering an intense pre-varsity training block. Tickets for varsity can be purchased at the following link, as well as coach travel from Oxford: eticketing.co.uk/saracens/EDP/Event/Index/449?position=3 (Students can use code OURFC48 for a discount!)
Match photos by Steve Karpa avaliable here:
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