Welsh Select 0 RAF Women 42
Sunday 17th December 2.00pm

A cold and windy December weekend saw the RAF women travel to Wales to face a Welsh select squad.

The RAF took a while to settle in to the game and a pitch with a definite incline and lots of mud, but with some good work at the scrums and a fast break by Soozi James they set up Laura Stewart for the first try of the match. Lynn Armstrong took in the ball from the restart and gained the RAF a penalty which saw another break by Soozi James and Nicola Underwood to set Laura Stewart up for her second score.

The Welsh fought hard from the restart and worked their way back into the RAF half. The constant pressure was finally relieved by Nicola Underwood clearing the ball to touch from right in front of the RAF posts but still the Welsh fought back and Julie Crole put in a try-saving tackle to finally give the RAF the ball and the chance to fight back.

The RAF had to work hard against the wind in the Line outs and the team worked hard to fight their way back up the pitch into the Welsh half with a great break from Sally Thornton and a disallowed try before Steph Carlyon was able to put more points on the board for the RAF after a penalty and take the score to 0-15 at half time.

The RAF came back on to the pitch looking to hold onto their first half lead and started well by driving up the pitch and with some good mauling work finally crossed the line in with P Stone getting her first try for the RAF. The Welsh tried hard to fight back but were stopped in their tracks by Soozi James and a break from Mandy Mitchell. Then Sally Thornton put on a superb display of what pace and angles can do to a defence and scored right under the posts giving Katie Sharman the chance for the conversion in strong winds.

The RAF continued to dominate and three more tries followed all for Mandy Mitchell to give a decisive final score to the RAF.

Squad:

Flt Lt Bird, Cpl Armstrong, AC Stone, Fg Off Seymour, Fg Off Muir, Sgt Carlyon, SAC Stewart, Sgt Thornton, Cpl Mitchell, Sgt Underwood, Cpl Crole, Cpl Williamson, Flt Lt Sharman, SAC Monger, Sgt James, SAC Murphy.