By David Webb
Chard Ladies 27 Kingswood 7
Kingswood came to Essex Close having been victorious in the opening fixture of the season, with Chard Ladies looking for their third win in a row. So the scene was set for a great contest, and so it was.
In heavy conditions, it was Chard who started the stronger, using their powerful forwards and strong running backs to make inroads into the visitors’ defence. The visitors , who in the first encounter relied on their fast backs and outflanking defences, found that the conditions and greatly improved home defence , restricted their scoring opportunities .
Scoring in the first half was dominated by the power of the home side , with forwards Daisy Vinnicombe, Cara Austin and Talia Treble crashing over that took Chard into a 15pt lead . However, it was not one-sided as Kingswood relied with a try and conversion of their own to make the half time score to 15-7.
The second half then proved what vast improvements Chard Ladies have made this season, completing maybe their best all round performance of the season.
Following another try by Naomi Harris, the scoring was completed by a contender for Chard Ladies try of the season.
Chard , while defending another Kingswood attack in their own 22, turned the ball over and moving the ball between forwards and backs, ran the length of the field for Vi Coppin to score a converted try, to take the final score to 27-7.
What was also so important , was the defensive work by all players to keep a Kingswood side ( who currently sit top of the table) to just one score.