It was a young, spirited London Irish side who demonstrated their intent as Championship One South newcomers, by securing a bonus-point victory over an Abbey Women side who, despite some fantastic individual efforts, failed to deliver a cohesive team performance.
Tries in the respective halves from Clara Reynolds and skipper Annabel Hawkins wasn’t enough to contain the visitors, who ran away with the score line in a game largely played around the halfway line.
Irish started the brighter team, but the huge defensive efforts of debutants Maggie Simpson and Issy Moyles, and Tori Kiff and Ellie Denton-Rice thwarted their early attacks.
It was the visitors who crossed the whitewash first, with Irish’s number eight Catherine Thomas crossing from close range after a driving maul.
Abbey had not settled into the game yet, or had much ball, yet their response after the first score was positive; Alice Denton-Rice restarted with a long kick, and after a fumble from the Irish winger Ciara Potter, the home side had their first real attacking platform of the match.
Fly-half Hannah Skeels marshalled the play right, before swinging it back left, and it was Simpson who flicked on a deft pass to outside centre Reynolds for her maiden try in Abbey colours.
There were some calls from the sideline for a penalty try, as Reynolds had managed to ground the ball while being high tackled, but the decision stayed as so.
The rest of the first half continued in the same vein, with both sides struggling to assert their dominance in the game.
Irish carried well and their hooker Rebecca Addis, as well as their flanker Scarlett Cooper-Wall continued to test the home side’s defence, but Simpson was a jackaling stronghold at the back and Alice Denton-Rice made good ground from resulting penalty kicks.
Despite some strong individual carries from props Jess Potter and Hannah Gale, and number eight Annabel Hawkins, Abbey struggled to match Irish’s attacking intensity, which culminated in the visitors’ second score just before the break from the dynamic Addis.
In the second half, scrum half Ellie Denton-Rice started box-kickingwell to earn the home side territory advantage, yet Abbey were still finding it difficult to capitalise from the resulting set piece, with multiple refereeing decisions going against them.
Irish’s strong defence repelled keen Abbey attacks, and after influential forwards Joey Fowler and Charlotte Faux being substituted for injury, and Kiff saw yellow for team infringements, Irish’s replacement forward Charlie Webb found her side’s third try.
Buoyed by the player advantage, this was closely followed by Cooper-Hall and Devon Hallett finding their first scores of the match and securing Irish the bonus point.
Determined to match the intensity Irish had started the second half with, Abbey intensified their attack, with Alice Denton-Rice finding the corner with penalty kicks.
Abbey hammered Irish’s 22, with strong carries from Gale, Potter and Hawkins, but all efforts were in vain when Irish’s centre Hallett read Skeels’ pass to the letter, intercepting it and running from just outside her 22 to score her side’s final try.
Abbey managed to finish the game on their own terms from the restart, with Irish fumbling the catch and from the resulting scrum, Abbey put together some of their most intense attacking phases of the match.
A strong carry from Alice Denton-Rice saw her hauled down a metre from the try line and it was Abbey’s skipper Hawkins who ensured her side had the final say of the afternoon crossing the whitewash in the final play.
Despite finishing the match on a high, Abbey will rue their missed chances, but credit to London Irish who took theirs. It was a hugely competitive fixture with solid periods of attack and defence, but now Abbey will need to work on the cohesion between the two in the week off before their Championship campaign restarts on November, 6 away to Hove.
Report by Annette Tomas
