Report: Gloucester-Hartpury 36-0 Bristol Bears Women

What Happened? 

It didn’t take long for the hosts to spring into action as they opened the scoring inside five minutes. The Bears were caught on the back foot from the off and Natasha Hunt capitalised to snipe through a half gap in the defence and cross from five metres out.

Both sides proceeded to exchange penalties in the opening stages, before the Cherry and Whites struck again as Hannah Jones carved a line through the Bears’ defensive line to run in from 40 metres.

Bears Women showed their resilience and fought their way back into game as they seemed to spark into life following Ellie Mulhearn’s bullish carry. The prop bounced off the attempted tackle of Rachel Lund to take the Bears up to the Gloucester-Hartpury twenty-two, where the visitors would win a penalty.

The visitors looked to the maul and almost had their reward as they powered towards the line, however, as the driving maul was brought to the floor the referee adjudged the Bears to have knocked the ball on, allowing the hosts to clear their lines.

Gloucester-Hartpury came knocking yet again before the half was up, calling for another big defensive set from the visitors, which was made all the more difficult after being reduced 14 following Courtney Keight’s sin bin for a deliberate knock on.

The Cherry and White came hammer and thong at the Bears and the visitor’s defensive effort withstood their best attempts. First, thwarting the driving maul and then forced a turnover in the midfield to see out the half.

Following their emergence from the sheds, Bristol Bears Women looked to spark into life as Simi Pam powered through the midfield, however the visitors failed to capitalise on their visit to the twenty-two.

Gloucester-Hartpury regrouped and soon put the game well beyond the best efforts of the Bears as Hannah Jones crashed over to secure her brace followed shortly after by Natasha Hunt.

The two sides unloaded their benches, which saw Gloucester-Hartpury kick on as replacement Ellie Underwood scored a quickfire double to close out a resounding win for the Cherry and Whites.

Teams: 

Gloucester-Hartpury: 15. Emma Sing, 14. Kelly Smith, 13. Hannah Jones, 12. Tatyana Heard, 11. Rachel Lund, 10. Daisy Fahey, 9. Mo Hunt; 1. Kathryn Buggy, 2. Robyn Lock, 3. Cerys Hale, 4. Shya Pinnock, 5. Gwen Crabb, 6. Georgia Brock, 7. Tabitha Copson, 8. Bethan Lewis

Replacements: 16. Rani Samuda, 17. C Hope, 18. E Perry, 19. Zoe Aldcroft, 20. M Allen, 21. Bianca Blackburn, 22. Millie Wood, 23. Ellie Underwood.

Bristol Bears Women:15. Jasmine Joyce, 14. Kyara Martin, 13. Phoebe Murray, 12. Lucie Skuse, 11. Courtney Keight, 10. Elinor Snowsill, 9. Lucy Burgess; 1. Simi Pam, 2. Clara Nielson ©, 3. Ellie Mulhearn, 4. Hollie Cunningham, 5. Natalia John, 6. Jenny Herring, 7. Manon Johnes, 8. Rownita Marston

Imapct Players: 16. Abbie Parsons, 17. Holly Phillips, 18. Stef Evans, 19. Megan Barwick, 20. Alice Lockwood, 21. Serena Settembri, 22. Gemma Rowland, 23. Grace Crompton