TABARD LADIES 32

HARWICH AND DOVERCOURT OWLS 12

Women's NC South North 1

THE Owls suffered their first league defeat since early September 2015.

They had been unbeaten in their previous 13 fixtures.

From the start, it was evident that Tabard would dictate the play through their experienced 10 and 12.

This was evidenced with the first try of the game coming from a neat chip into the corner by Tabard's fly-half for them to dot down.

The Owls came out after this with some huge hits from Mimi Montgomery to try and disrupt Tabard's phase play. However, thanks to the strong running of Tabard's ex-Ireland centre, they managed to puncture the Harwich defence, leading to another try.

Harwich did make some headway with inside-centre Kim Hutchins cutting a fantastic arcing line to round the Tabard defence and run in a try from the halfway line.

Unfortunately, Hutchins didn't manage to make the conversion.

The Harwich set-piece was in sublime form, causing the Tabard pack all kinds of problems in the scrum and disrupting their lineout at every given opportunity.

Disorganisation in the loose was the Owls' downfall, with the rest of the half played much the same as the first 15 minutes.

Tabard used their 10 and 12 to make good yards and breach the Harwich defence, running in three more tries before the half-time whistle.

After some self-reflection at half-time and a couple of changes, Harwich came out looking like a different team.

The big hits kept coming from Mimi Montgomery but now the other girls were putting them in too.

Some excellent work at the breakdown from Bear and Lauren Richardson saw Harwich turn over some important ball and disrupt Tabard's distribution game.

Hawich's tails we're up now and this was evidenced by the continued strong scrummaging, driving Tabard back on multiple occasions.

Not a single member of the pack can be faulted for their dedication to dominating the Tabard pack in the set piece.

All this hard work seemed to be undone when Tabard again rolled over for another try but credit to Harwich - they kept going.

Brilliant running from Di Wood, Mimi Montgomery, Nicola Kington and Lauren Richardson saw the Owls punch holes in the Tabard defence.

A brief moment of indiscipline saw number eight Mimi Montgomery receive a yellow card for retaliation following a brief exchange in the ruck with one of Tabard’s players and both teams were down to 14.

This didn't stop Harwich from playing the game their way, though.

More excellent work from full-back Yas Amber saw her burst through numerous tackles to sprint away and score a try.

She took the conversion to make the final score 32-12.

Forward-of-the-match was awarded to new second row Lauren Richardson.

Back-of-the-match was Elizabeth Flatt.

The Owls will look to bounce back on Sunday, October 2 when they entertain East London Ladies.