Newark 41 Hinckley 15

Another small step in the right direction.
Kicking off on a perfect day, facing a slight breeze and against last season’s leading team in the Inner Warrior Series, the women were prepared and up for a tough game ahead of them.
Receiving the ball first, it wasn’t long before our team got into their stride and Ella (scrum half) soon found a gap to squeeze through under the posts. However, Hellcats weren’t long before starting their account and scored out wide capitalizing on a rare defensive mistake.
Newark then regained some flow and rhythm and started to advice forward with some slick interacting between the pack and backs. Our support play today throughout was superb and Paige finished off a move that involved most to side interchanging positions supporting each other and under the posts and stretching the lead. 14-5.
A period of both sides showing off their defensive skills and organisation before Millie showed again that support play is equally as important. Finishing off a move that started well inside our half, going through several sets of hands and being on the players shoulder to place the ball down extending the lead. 19 – 5.
Hinckley didn’t rest and applied pressure from the restart and were soon adding to their tally forcing the ball over in the corner again.
The best try of the day most be from this restart as the ball just passed the 10 metre line and bounced kindly for Abi to gather, using her pace and agility she almost made it to the line before being stopped 5 metres out, again with support on her shoulder Iona screamed out and was duly fed the ball to run in unopposed. 24 – 10.
Half time wasn’t far away but still time for Elsie to score on debut beating a couple of defenders on the way, but she’ll be remembered more for her crunching tackles today as she brought down anything in front of her and at one point got penalised for tackling too hard. 29 - 10 Break.
Hinkley immediately into the second half ran in a try that showed our women that this contest wasn’t over. 29 - 15
Not panicking and going back into our structured game plan we soon got the ascendancy back on the pitch with a constant barrage of forwards taking the ball on recycling and feeding the support.
Scoring the next points was important and eventually Paige again added to her tally, receiving the ball at pace, which gave her an advantage over the defenders, she swirled and swivelled past a couple of retreating players before touching down. 34 – 15.
Keeley was next, crashing over from short range as the forwards decided it was their turn to get on the score sheet. Manoeuvring the ball and interacting with the back line across and up the field, until it got to 5 meters out, then it was theirs and after a couple of attempts to crash over, being held out by the sterling defence work from Hinkley, Keeley found the smallest of gaps. 41 – 15.

Today was another step forward in showing that we have a squad that play for each other, support each other and are there for each other on and off the pitch.
In defence we stood firm, shoulder to shoulder. In attack, together we advanced.
Support, support, SUPPORT!!
Today we showed the watching crowd that the Newark Women are close knit team and how much playing this sport means to you all!