Kent women travelled to Reading Rugby club on Sunday 8th May to play Berkshire women in their opening match of the Gill Burns Women’s County Championship 2022. Berkshire kicked off and started the game strongly and Kent were forced into defending from the off, after 10 minutes of defiant defence Kent eventually conceded the first try of the game.
From the restart, Berkshire attacked again however the Kent women stood firm and thwarted the Berkshire attacks until Berkshire were awarded a scrum penalty in an attacking position which they took quickly and managed to cross the line, now having a lead of 10-0.
The Kent women regrouped after this and for a long period of play were in the Berkshire 22 attacking the red zone, however they were unable to cross the whitewash and just before the final whistle of the half Berkshire were able to break out of their 22 and score a converted try at the other end.
The Kent women started the second half determined to challenge the Berkshire women, however they conceded a quick score and were now trailing 22-0. As the conversion was taken the women regrouped under the cross bar and discussed how they needed to manage the game.
The Kent women after this were able to get their attack firing and were challenging Berkshire in all areas of the game and scored their first points through a try out wide from Claudia Di Marco, a very difficult conversion from so far out was missed, leaving the score at 22-5.
Kent women kept pressing hard for another score and it took another 15 minutes for this to come with Eirlys Withers scoring from great run from a regathered ball at a line out 15 metres from the Berkshire try line, the score now stood at 22-10 to Berkshire.
The Kent women kept playing with growing confidence of a possible win and were challenging the Berkshire line again and were thwarted on several occasions. With the clock running down it looked as if the score would end 22-10, however Kent had different ideas and kept attacking, which eventually culminated in a well taken try by Allisha Coulson, with the missed conversion being the last play of the game the final score was Berkshire 22- Kent 15
Kent Women now move onto their next game against Buckinghamshire Women at Alyesbury RFC on Sunday 15thMay, kick off 2.30pm.
