Athena's U14's Vs Imperial U14 Girls

The Bristol Imperial U14 girls travelled to Grimsbury Road on Sunday to take on the Kingswood Athena's. The two sides met recently and played out a close and competitive match which saw the Athena's narrow victors. All signs were pointing to another tough match.

The first half began and the Athena's started strong, marching their way up the pitch. The ball was slipping between the two teams as both sets of players struggled at the breakdown but the Athena's put in some big tackles and turned the ball over again around the Imperial 10 meter line. Emily Barnston was passed the ball and scorched past several Imperial defenders to score the first try of the match. Iris Greenwood kicked the conversion.

Imperial bounced back and turned over the play from an Athena defensive scrum and scored their first try in the corner.

A 2nd Athena try was not long in coming though as Scarlett Bryant showed great strength and ran through multiple tacklers to touch down edging the Athena's back in front.

Imperial began to assert their presence on the match and were finding gaps in the Athena's defence and began to dominate the breakdown. Two great tackles from Emily and Iris saved a certain try but the pitch position and lack of defensive structure meant Imperial were able to score several phases later and went into the half time break 12-19 ahead.

The second half began and the Athena's were still struggling at the breakdowns. Imperial were also keen to work the ball to their powerful runners and were able to score 3 tries in quick succession capitalising at the breakdown and from several missed tackles. Taking the score to 12 - 38.

The Athena's weren't rolling over though. A restart from Iris sent the ball deep into Imperial teratory and Romilly Langdon chased down to secure possession, supported by Emily who finished off to touch down. An Imperial high tackle resulted in an Athena penalty and Lilly Williams was able to secure her first try in the right corner. Some fine clear out pay from Summer Currey at the breakdowns saw the ball again passed through to Emily who broke tackles and scored twice more for the Athena's. although at this stage the try tally was 6 a piece, the Imperial conversions had been more successful and the score was still in favour of Imperial at 32-38. the Athena's had given everything to battle back but Imperial had one final line break in them and after some more Athena missed tackles, Imperial were able to run in and secured the match. With the added conversion, the final score ended 32-45.

There were some great efforts made by all the girls throughout the match, Nyla O'Loughlin and Ameillia Woodland with some powerful running, Dominique Downie was hugely consistent yet again at scrum half. All the girls fought to the end. The final result seemed a little favourable to Imperial but the match was much closer than the score suggested and on another day the Athena's perhaps should have won.

Next week see a home match against North Bristol.

Special mentions to Emily Barnston who received back player of the match and Summer Currey who received forward player of the match.

1. Abby Harding
2. Summer Currey
3. Amelia Woodland
4. Scarlet Bryant
5. Tierah Reilly
6. Nyla O'Loughlin
7. Phoebe Marsh
8. Romilly Langdon
9. Dominique Downie
10. Iris Greenwood
11. Abi Smith
12. Emily Barnston
13. Lily Williams
14. Sasha Beresford
15. Ava Westwood