On Sunday 15th May Berkshire RFU Women took on Sussex RFU Women at Maidenhead RFC in their second qualifying match of this years Gill Burns Women’s County Championship 2022 Division 1 match. They know that a win would put them in a good place in this years competition and a potential quarter final place.
There was a first with Berkshire RFU celebrating their latest married couple taking to the pitch and playing alongside each other for the first time and just to keep it in the family their cousin was also playing alongside for the first time.
Berkshire Women started the stronger and after an attack phase were able to get the ball wide on the left to score in the corner.
The rain then started and was persistent for the duration of the match. Both teams adapted well and was still a focus on keeping the ball alive with both teams showing well in attacks with offloads while the last ditch defending in place made for some exciting moments with a few turnovers giving both teams the opportunity to score.
At halftime the score remained 5-0 to Berkshire.
SECOND HALF
In the 2nd half a quick score by Sussex RFU was returned when after a series of penalties one half of the happIly newly weds (centre Alice Denton-Rice) celebrating the event by crashing over to score and make it 10-5 Berkshire.
Both teams pushed to move the ball with Sussex looking to break through with their 8 and 10 playing very actives roles and some strong runs but it was @berkshirerfu Kate Hallett who reappeared (after a short hiatus in the 1st half) whow scored right in the corner on almost the final whistle which was converted to make the final score 17-0..
The score does not reflect how close this game was and well playing to both teams in what was a closely fought match.
Big thanks to Hertfordshire Referees for officiating.
Final Score Berkshire RFU Women 17- 0 Sussex RFU Women
How it could play out
Berkshire now find themselves in a waiting game as the Div 1 pools were amalgamated due to some of he counties not entering a women’s team into this years competition (namely Glos RFU) Women) and so it is based upon the scores from other games to determine if Berkshire will progress to the quarter finals as they could not play Glos and a walkover was not given for the match. Sussex will be the only team to play three matches.
- Berkshire have an average points difference of 11 points.
- Buckinghamshire need to win with 4 tries and a points difference of greater than 18 to better Berkshire.
- Surrey need to win with a 4 try bonus point or win with less than 4 tries and have a points difference of great than 12 points to better Berkshire.
This how the Berkshire management team have understood the regulations.
The fixtures this weekend are;
Sussex v Bucks
Kent v Surrey
MATCH REPORT- Written by Wayne Foncette
