Olney Ladies Vs Bridgnorth Ladies

An undermanned Olney side suffer a narrow defeat

A slightly depleted Olney side made the long trip to Bridgnorth for today's game.
A positive start from Olney saw them camped in the Bridgnorth half for much of the first ten minutes. Unfortunately, they could not make the final move that would give them the first score, and it was a break from Bridgnorth utilising the overlap that gave the first points of the game (7-0).

The restart saw the Olney defence put under pressure again and Bridgnorth made good progress into the Olney half. Some brilliant tackling saw the ball turned over and the Olney attack set off down the pitch. Some great runs from Jen Micklewright , Fleur Shakespeare and Hannah Anthony opened the defence up giving Jennie Miles the opportunity to break through the middle. Despite a last gasp tackle from Bridgnorth Jennie's momentum took her over the line to score the first try for the visitors (7-5).

Olney continued to put pressure on the Bridgnorth defence and a well worked forward attack led to a well-practiced backs move, which saw Meg Edwards score in the corner (7-10).

The restart saw Olney pushed into their own half and under pressure but a nice kick over the top of the defence saw a mistake from the Bridgnorth full back, which gave Olney possession in the Bridgnorth 22. Strong running from Leah Thomas and Naomi Leicester pushed the attack towards the line and a quick dart from the bottom of a ruck saw Nikki Moore score her first try for the club! Jennie converted (7-17).

Once again Bridgnorth made some good breaks and were camped in the Olney 22. Strong defence from the Olney side held them out but gave away a scrum for the last play of the half. A good blind 8 pick-up saw Bridgnorth beat the defence and score to close the gap to 12-17 at half time.

Olney started the second half slowly and Bridgnorth took advantage of that taking a clearance that missed touch and countering with a kick chase down the pitch. This ended with a dive to touch the ball down just before Meg got there. The conversion took Bridgnorth into the lead (19-17).

Play was tight in the second half with some brilliant defence including great tackling from Bobby Jenkins and the only points for a long time were a penalty kick per side (22-20).

With ten minutes to go Bridgnorth made a break down the line to score in the corner. The missed conversion left them seven points ahead (27-20). A couple of mistakes from Bridgnorth gave Olney the ball in the 22 with five minutes to go. Some great runs and support from the whole team led to Lianne O’Reilly powering through to score. Unfortunately Jennie missed the conversion that would have secured the draw, leaving the score at 27-25 and the thirteen man team were left disappointed with a narrow defeat but proud of the performance and effort put in from all.

Thank you to Dave Cooper who took some great photos of the game
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cooperevents/albums/72157689046060014/with/26494507909/