Women's NC 3 South West (Central): Chard Ladies 32-0 Trowbridge Ladies

LAST weekend Chard Ladies welcomed Trowbridge Ladies to Essex close for an eagerly anticipated encounter.

The early stages saw both sides defences proving very strong, and this was a feature throughout the whole of the game.

Chard had plenty of possession and used it well, with forwards and backs linking superbly through many phases.

After a period of constant pressure, alert scrum half Georgie Waite, heard the call from wing Kelly Dixon to switch play to the blind side, and fed Beth Kelly to crash over for the first try of the match.

This then tended to be the pattern of the match, with Chard playing heads up rugby to a level not achieved before in this season. The back row was immense in support and tackling with flankers Claire Broom and Shanie Cox working hard in close quarters, teaming up with the rampaging Shoemark at No 8.

Towards the end of the half, a similar move to the first try, once again saw the home side take advantage of an overlap on the left and this time it was returning Tara Smillie who dived over to make the score 10-0 at the break.

Despite the high percentage of ball and score at 10-0, the game was definitely not one way, with the resilient Trowbridge side putting strong attacks of their own.

Only the high standard of tackling throughout the Chard line-up prevented the visitors scoring. The highlight of which, was captain Taylors try line tackle on the visitors prop, which drove her back and enabled the home side to regain possession.

Wing Emily Lancaster, finally scored her first try after a scintillating run from just inside the opposition half, to scorch past the defence and score .

Then, "veteran" Sarah Kneeshaw, who once again proved why she should stop talking about retiring, crashed over for the second try of the half. This was converted by Barnes to take the score to 22-0.

In the last quarter, Chard scored two more tries, the first of which was a perfect team try, coming from a lineout fed along the line for Taylor to score to the left of the posts.

The second a fine effort by fly half Barnes to crash through the cover defense for a well deserved try.

The final score of 32-0 to the home side, says a lot about the character of the Chard Ladies on the day that all the training and hard work came to fruition.