Wellingborough 5 - 12 Lutterworth

Wellingborough’s first league game of the season saw them at home to newly relegated Lutterworth.  In a hard fought contest against a very experienced team the Ladies, with 4 new starters and at least 4 others playing out of position due to injuries and unavailability, put up a spirited performance that bodes well for the res t of the season.

Lutterworth dominated the early exchanges, particularly in the tight against an inexperienced Wellingborough scrummage and came close to scoring on several occasions but were halted by determined tackling by the Wellingborough backs whose defence was outstanding for most of the match.

Lutterworth finally made the breakthrough after 20 minutes when, following a break by the half-fly, support was on hand to move the ball along the line for a score out wide.  This setback inspired Wellingborough to raise their work rate and a break by Emily Underwood was stopped short by some determined defence.

The first half ended early due to a serious injury to one of Lutterworths players and the match moved to another pitch after the break.  Wellingborough re-organised both back and forwards at half time and came out determined to make a mark on the game. 20 minutes of solid pressure in the Lutterworth half finally resulted in Natalie Smart going over for a try to level scores.  At this point Wellingborough were easily the dominant side and were pushing to win the game.

Unfortunately as Wellingborough tired in the hot weather Lutterworth's one real attack in the 2^nd half resulted in a converted try with 5 minutes to go and the Ladies were unable to recover in the time left.

This was a really encouraging performance for man inexperienced team playing at a higher level than last season and the future looks good with so many new players starting to learn from the more experienced ones.

Player of the Match: Theresa Boden-Jones