Sun 13 Mar 2022
North Dorset Women had a trip down to sunny Poole on Sunday. The girls have been training and prepping hard over the last few weeks. North arrived with a new debutant by Ami Jaruszek, who had a blinder of a match in the second row.
The first try of the day came from a solo effort with a 50m run from number 13 Catherine Stonebridge, converted by Amber Corbett (7-0). After a dominant lineout and good hands down the line, Catherine went over for the second try of the day, converted by again by Amber (14-0). Some hard ball carrying by the forwards and excellent support play in pods resulted in Bob (Jamie George) going over in the middle of the park (19-0). Again, forwards dominating the breakdown and fast hands to winger Evie Dalby-Welsh enabled her to score in the corner, unfortunately not converted but a great effort at crossbar challenge from Amber. Resident Bulldozer and all-around hard woman Louisa Neale was back to form as she then knocked over several defenders to cross the whitewash to make the score 29-0. Dorset then spent the last 10 minutes of the half defending hard in their 22 and kept making dominant tackles which kept the score 29-0 at halftime.
The start of the second half saw a territorial battle between both sides. North ended the skirmish after a turnover at a breakdown by Amber, who offloaded to Catherine, who dotted down for her hat-trick. An outstanding defensive set by the team. This score was followed by 10 mins of pressure in our 22 and several penalties against us. North Dorsets defence remained defiant and wouldn't let Poole score. North's defence pushed Poole out of the 22 by meeting them on the ball with excellent line speed. At the end of the third quarter, the score was 34-0.
From the restart, North kicked it too long, the goal line drop out is caught by Louisa and again bulldozed her way over the line to make the score 39-0. The next try came after Louisa attacked from the base of the scrum and took out four defenders and offloaded to Emily Kendall, who ran free to score under the posts, converted by Amber, which left the final score at 46-0.
Fantastic team performance, and it was great to see the woman's defence improving week on week, forward of the match Kate Willets for a brilliant performance in the tight. Amber Corbett was back of the game for her great control of the defence.
