Mary's Thaw out Ice Maidens

St Mary's travelled to Devizes on Sunday and put together a great all round team effort which even surprised their coaches.

Mary's who have struggled with numbers recently due to injurys and work shift patterns, went into the match with a bare 15 players but dug deep to play some very attractive rugby.

The Maidens were on the attack early and Mary's soaked up the pressure and pounced on any opportunity. This led to Laura Rugman fly hacking the ball up field from her own 22 only to chase the ball and off load to captain Lucy bowering who went over in the corner. Rugman then Converted the difficult conversion, Devizes 0 Mary's 7 with only 5mins gone.

Again Devizes kicked the ball down Mary's throats only for Flanker Laura Mahoney to bring it right back at them with her quick feet she set up Lindsey Newey on the charge and after shrugging off several challenges Mary's set up a beautiful backs move for Miriam Soteriou to break the defensive line and run from the oppositions 10m underneath the posts. Again Rugman Converted.

Mary's didn't rest or take their foot off the gas, they regained the ball from the kick off and Mahoney again setting up the Ruck with a 20m return got the backs clean ball and sent Esther Fonollosa tearing up the wing from marys own half to go over in the corner.

No.8 Katie Sully attacked the blind time after time gaining valuable yards for Mary's who welcomed Sophie Davies in her first game for the saints.

Mary's in their 10m gained a penalty which Laura Rugman spiralled down the pitch to land the saints inside the Devizes 22. A well worked Lineout was then Driven 15m with Kerry Diedericks controlling from the base. The Maul stopped and Kezza Broke off to beat 3 defenders and slam the ball down.

Half Time Devizes 0 Mary's 24

The second half saw a lot of the same from Mary's but with our inside Centre being doubled teamed this allowed a lot of space in the 13 channel much to Miriam Soteriou's delight.

The next try came from a lot of hard work by Esther Fonollosa who caught the kick off and went on an inspiring run to offload to Claudia Mendoza who crashed through the line before another offload to Miriam gave her her second Try of the game. Rugman converted.

Marys final try came from our little Spanish Winger Esther Gasa Fonollosa who 2 or 3 times returned the kick off with interest but through great team work and some awesome pick and goes by Lindsey Newey and Laura Mahoney. The backs found space for simple hands to get through Devizes and send Esther in for her 2nd of the match.

Mary's then defended a wave of attacks from Devizes, Mary's kept their structure and the tempo with huge tackles coming in from Lucy Bowering and Katie Sully. Especially when Devizes brought on their fresh prop who dwarfed any of the Mary's team. Mary's defence held strong and the referee blew the final whistle.

A great team performance with Kerry Diedericks and Esther Fonollosa gaining man of the match awards.

Final score Devizes 0 - Mary's 38