Cup Final
Littleborough maintained their 100% cup record with a 54-10 victory over the Halton Vikings at the Big Fellas Stadium on Easter Sunday afternoon. The Boro girls crossed for twelve tries, a hat-trick for Jenny Russell and Gillian Aspin, while reader, Camara, Hubbard, Connor, Spreadborough and Davey grabbing the others.
It took Boro just two minutes to open the scoring, Russell with a break down the right, drew the fullback and Gillian Aspin dived in under the sticks. Robinson hit the goal, 6-0.
On 6 minutes Boro were in again, this time attacking down the left and Davey sent out a great pass to send in Aspin in the corner for her second try of the game. Robinson sent over a great touchline conversion and opened up a 12-0 lead.
Boro were on a roll and extended their lead further, a sweeping move on the right, this time Aspin Jnr in the line as provider sending Hubbard crashing over. Conversion missed, 14-0.
Half through the first half Russell raced 70 metres for Boro's fourth try to put them in a commanding position. She fended off three potential Halton tackles to race away to the line for a great individual effort.
Great tackling by Aspin Jnr who stole the ball in the process, allowing quick ball to Spreadborough to race for the line and the Halton team looked to be beaten
Russell grabbed her second try of the game on 25 minutes racing away from 40 metres with Robinson support, Halton’s fullback committed to Robinson to give Russell a clear run to line.
Another sweeping move saw reader score, the Halton defence in disarray and the crowd joyful saw the eighth try of the half with seconds of the half remaining, Davey kick and Connor pouncing on the loose ball. Robinson conversion hit the posts, 38-0 at the interval.
It took Boro just two minutes to extend their lead, Davey and Spreadborough combining to send Russell away for her hat-trick, straight from the restart Llewellyn broke the line and with a superb offload hit Davey at pace and kill the game off
The Vikings did however grab 2 consolation tries, one clearly offside and one clearly in touch with the referee over ruling the linesman, Boro had to withstand more pressure but regrouped and on 64 minutes and went in for their 10th try, well deserved by Camara who had been solid at fullback all day
G Aspin grabbed her hat-trick collecting a high Davey kick on 74 minutes; Robinson added the goal to make it 54-10.
A great team performance all round, but best on the day for Boro went to Davey for her leadership and calming influence on the pitch
CONGRATULATIONS to LITTLEBOROUGH !
Littleborough Hillside 36-10 Copeland Wildcats
Littleborough suffered an early scare, falling behind through a soft try after forcing the ball out to wide to early resulting in good attacking ball for Copeland’s half back to crash over from short range. Littleborough then found some rhythm and cut loose as Robinson grabbed a brace of tries under the posts including a spectacular break from inside her own half.
Copeland struggled to get out of there half and failed to use the slope to their advantage, a Littleborough scrum saw quick ball to Davey who drew the two defenders and put Russell through a big gap and Littleborough went in 16-4 at half time
Littleborough should have been further in front and came out fired up in the second half, blitzing Copeland with three tries in a devastating 15 minute spell. Russell, Connor and Spreadbrough the beneficiaries all stepping through the defence with dummy runners pulling defenders out of position.
Littleborough continued to push but Copeland in no mood to give up somehow managed to keep the waves of attack at bay. Hubbard probably playing her best game so far this season came close on a number of occasions to score with only a tap tackle keeping her out. Copeland tried to get out of there own half with one up rugby leading to some bone crunching tackles.
Littleborough then after working hard in attack and defence had a lapse in concentration and gave Copeland a rare visit into the boro half to score a well worked try. This was scant consolation, and Aspin converted her own try late on to ensure Littleborough had the final say.
Copeland Wildcats 18 Littleborough Hillside 26
Hillside overcame tremendous difficulty to achieve a fine win in Cumbria for the opening game of the season. Having travelled with various players unavailable and dealt with the long journey they attached from the off lead by the half back pairing of Terri Davey and Jenny Russell. After just 7 minutes it was Davey who opened the scoring fooling the defence with a combination of dummy passes leading to a break from half way and a try under the posts which Joenie Apsin converted. Five minutes later it was Russell's turn to shine producing a superb pass to put Zoe Robinson through a gap to score under the posts, again Aspin converted.
Copeland however, refused to be subdued and produced their best spell of the match and within 5 minutes were level. Having gone in at half time level and playing the 2nd half against the slop the signs did not look too good for the visitors until Russell who was later name player of the match took the game by the scruff of the neck and produced a stunning 2nd half performance, 10 minutes into the half she scored a fine solo try and was only denied a 2nd minutes later by a fine last ditch tackle. Hillside as a team were now visibly lifted with Aspin and Ashley Deas driving them forward a fine handling move lead to a 2nd try for Robinson. Louise Whiteside, a former youth player returned, was denied by some ferocious tackling which took her into touch and after 54 minutes Russell broke the line to score her 2nd, converted by Aspin and the game was won. A consolation try in the final minute allowed some respectability to the score line for the home team.
Middleton 26 Littleborough Hillside 14
This was a dissapointing defeat for Hillside in a game which could easily have been if not for a late spell of poor tackling.The game had started well for the visitors and they opened the scoring after just for minutes when fine handling from Terri Davey and Jenny Russell led to a first ever try for Grudy Price, however the lead was short lived as just two minutes later Middleton explioted an overlap on the right wing for hooker Forsell to cross in the corner.Prompted by player coach Joennie Aspin and the exuberant Russell Hillside pushed forward and re took the lead as Davey dummied to pass and dived over.At this point Hillside were dominating the game with sisters Dee and Leanne Llewellyn making good yards down the centre of the field but disaster steruck when a handling error presented a gift equaliser to Middleton.With six minutes of the half remaining the Rochdale girls once again took the lead.Hayley Spreadborough was unlucky to be deemed held up on the fifth tackle and from the resulting play the ball Davey produced a cross field kick which caused panick from the home defence and Dee Llewellyn pounced to score a try which Aspin converted.
Half time delight turned to despair in the second half as Middleton's Lisa Taylor made good use of a strong prevailing wind to consistently peg Hillside in their own half and the territorial advantage paid of as a driving run from Appleyard and a conversion from Taylor levelled the scores.The game was even from then on and Hiilside could easily have won it particularly when Russell was stopped just short of the line but in the last quarter of the game two missed tackles led to two clean breaks first by Forsell and then Haley for scores under the posts which Taylor converted.
Player of the match for Hillside went to Dee Llewellyn whilst the coaches award went to Jenny Russell and the players vote to Hayley Spreadborough
SQUAD J.Camara,E.Hubbard,H.Batty,T.Davey,J.Russell,Z.Robinson,D.Llewellyn,H.Spreadborough,L.Llewellyn,G.Price,J.Aspin,S.Wilde
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