Haverfordwest Ladies rugby won their home encounter 53-5 against West Swansea Hawks on Sunday (Feb 8) writes Jonathan Twigg, the Bluesette’s scoring 9 tries with outside centre Tati Richards, joint player of the match running in for a hat trick of touchdowns.
With the game played at HHVCS 4G pitch referee Martyn Rudd was able to apply the advantage throughout the game, with the home scrum a dominant force from the start with the work at the coal face of props Claire and Sarah Lawrence, alongside hooker Aimee Ridley establishing the plinth from which their side could play, scrum half Emma Summons a cajoling figure behind her pack where she was adept at servicing her back division of either hand, which gave her side the forward momentum.
The Blues had pace in the back three with wingers Meg Lepitit and Tilly Jamart given space in which to run, the former crossing for the games second try after good work from Summons and half back partner Elin Williams created the space for Richards to free Lepitit to round the covering full back Beth Jones, Richards having touched down for the game’s opening score after number 8 Rebecca Norris and joint player of the match, Sarah Lawrence made the hard yards.
Credit the visitors who tried to move the ball with the limited possession they had, flanker Tia Jones a hinge for much of their open play, winger Natalie Christofferson swooping in for the Hawkes only touchdown as the home flankers Bethan Jones and Christine Selby applied pressure on the midfield of Angharad Jones, Alice Hope and Roisin Webb to restrict their ability to move the ball away once secured.
There was parity in the line out between both sides but the Blues pack dominated the scrum, their collective cohesion as a well drilled pack of eight a credit to top of the house input from coaches Tom Carew and Morgan Ridley. The vast majority of the set pieces saw the visiting front row pop out and resulted in heavy yardage lost, the boiler house pairing of Fleur Munday and Emma Busch robust in their labours to drive ahead, Summons then setting Williams away and the playmaker ran smoothly with ball in hand, having a well timed pass to draw the defender with the vision also to kick from hand to reward her hard working colleagues with crucial territory.
Inside centre Niamh Mathias had a hand throughout the offensive play to also find her name amongst the try scorers in the first half and lightning quick full back Rhian Swift lived up to her name to add direction to the play and score her sides fourth try, the first of four converted by Williams.
If the Blues had any comeback on their performance would be to look at the lateral running lines they chose when a firmer course could have released space as they built their phase play, on permit replacement Leah Phillips one of those who chose that pathway which showed her colleagues to benefits of such direction of travel. Jamart touched down before a brace from Richards saw her complete her hattrick of tries, the icing on the cake coming from replacement Hannah Parry with the final touchdown.
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