Reading Abbey RFC

Abbey Nuns 1st XV marched one step closer to securing the Championship South West 2 title this season with a 63-7 demolition of bottom-placed Ellingham and Ringwood. 

In what turned out to be a celebration of women’s rugby, the game ended with three Abbey players donning the blue of the visitors, who were blighted with injury after travelling with a reduced squad. However, the Rosehill faithful were treated to a season’s-best 11-try team performance, with eight different players crossing the whitewash.

The home team all but wrapped up the win in the first half, securing the bonus-point in a record thirty minutes with scores from Annette Bevan, Pippa Robinson, Claire Stevens and a brace for Sarah Odenbach, who enjoyed yet another dominant performance in the pack. These tries, however, were run from a superb scrummaging platform, which continued to march Ellingham and Ringwood back, winning turnover ball aplenty.

Although the Nuns were forced to make a crucial change in the first quarter, when starting fly-half Ellie Rice picked up an ankle injury, youngster Karen Pacho stepped up the shirt to combine well with scrum-half Sarah Northover, who was playing her fiftieth league fixture for the Nuns. The experienced forward pack tuned into the unfamiliar playmakers’ voices, and the Nuns started to set their structures again, resulting in a second try for winger Robinson. Outside Centre Alice Denton, also celebrating her fiftieth cap, enjoyed a fine day from the tee and added the extras.

Such a dominant first-half performance allowed Lewis Jones and his coaching team the option to experiment at the break, and the experienced trio of Stevens, Bevan and Meaghan Fowler joined Rice on the bench to pave the way for Alice Lawrence and debutant prop Rosa Erdogan to join the fray. Winger Matthews, who had come on the pitch before the break added a new dimension from the wing and new combinations in the forward pack saw a trio of front-row tries from props Fi Manning, Hollie King and Jess Potter. 

By this point, Ellingham had been reduced to twelve players through injury so Bevan, Stevens and Fowler played for the opposition in the final quarter; Ellingham full-back Nina Hoadley eventually chinked her way through a gap in the home side’s defence and raced in under the sticks for her side’s only converted try of the day. Determined to have the last say, Abbey’s Denton responded with two of her own from her second-half position of full-back, carving expert lines through the Ellingham defence.

The Nuns 1st XV have another long break from league action until they travel to Plymouth on 23rd February.

The Nuns 2nd XV hosted Fullerians in what was a close contest until the final quarter, when three quick Fullerians tries snuck them the 10-27 win. Ellie Brooks (pictured) and Jess Williams enjoyed superb games and Izzy Chaplin debuted in Nuns’ hoops.

Match photos and captions (credited to John Taplin):

 Hayley Matthews made good impact from the wing

Sarah Odenbach stretches for the try line

Harri Driver carries the ball

Pippa Robinson dots down

Hollie King breaks away for her try

Karen Pacho on the run