Abbey Women responded well to last week’s heavy defeat to OA Saints by securing a bonus-point victory over Buckingham Swans, which saw five different players touch down over the line.
An opening score from hooker Claire Stevens, off a well-worked set piece lineout move, calmed the home side in a chaotic opening period.
Buckingham, although several places below Abbey in the Championship South 1 table, were up for the challenge and brought strong carries from their pack as well as hard hitters in defence.
Strong at the breakdown, they contested well and were keen to disrupt Abbey’s ball.
A series of penalties for the home side allowed centre Mia McCreesh to kick for touch and move her side into Buckingham’s 22.
Eventually, the chaos swung in Abbey’s favour and flanker Abi Wall cut a sweet line up the centre of the pitch to grab her maiden try of the season, and her team’s second.
Alice Denton-Rice was successful with the conversion and it was 12-0.
Although Abbey were two tries to the good, they wanted more before half-time.
With a dominant scrum, captain Annabel Hawkins chose this option at several penalties, and it wasn’t long before she reaped the rewards herself with a strong carry from the base of the scrum, crossing in the corner.
It was Buckingham who would have the final say of the half, however, with an excellent individual run from their outside centre Shaniah Herelle, who scooped up a mis-timed pass from the Abbey back line, and ran in 60 metres to score.
Despite the best efforts of fly-half Annette Bevan, Herelle outran her to cross in the corner.
In the second half, Abbey knew they had work to do to put the game to bed.
From the kick off, excellent pressure on the restart kick from replacement winger Liv Grane forced Buckingham to play from deep once more.
Full-back Alex Wilkinson fielded clearance kicks well, and was strong when returning them. Abbey were patient and although eventually lost possession, McCreesh showed an excellent read of the game with an interception between the Buckingham centres.
Flanked by Bevan and Wilkinson, it was her turn for a 60 metre sprint to the line, securing the bonus-point try under the sticks, and Alice Denton-Rice was successful with the conversion.
Although Buckingham replied with two tries of their own, Abbey, now playing towards their clubhouse, continued to press and it was the in-form Alice Denton who grabbed two tries in what seemed as many minutes, the first with a powerful run over the line and the second from a well-timed pass from her centre partner McCreesh. Converting the second, Abbey finished the game 36-15.
It was a day for some outstanding individual performances; McCreesh ran well in the backs and in the pack, Stevens and Hannah Gale scrummaged well.
It was refreshing to have Wall and Shephard back in the side after layoffs with injury and a convincing performance now sees Abbey sit sixth in the table, with three winnable games
coming up.
