Report: Sale Sharks Women 18-40 Bristol Bears Women

What happened?

After a long journey up to the North West, most would have expected a sluggish start for the visitors, but it was quite the opposite as Phoebe Murray opened the scoring on the five minute mark. 

The Bears forwards brought the visitors within metres of the tryline, and after a penalty was awarded a set-piece move allowed the University of Bristol Student to scythe through the Sharks defence and open the scoring. 

Sale responded through a Daley-McLean penalty, but the Bears soon scored their second of the afternoon. 

A bulldozing run from Bern took the Bears deep into Sharks territory, which was followed by a moment of individual brilliance from Powell, who skilfully chipped and chased over the defence to dive over the line under the uprights. 

Buoyed by two early scores, Bristol Bears would not be denied of a third try before the half-time break. After shutting out the hosts for prolonged period, they struck at the next available opportunity. Butchers hit a sumptuous inside line off a disguised pass from Snowsill to power over in the corner. 

Sale would go on to kick a second penalty before half-time, which saw the Bears go into the break 6-19 to the good. 

After emerging from the sheds, Bristol wasted no time in securing the try bonus-point. A lethal driving maul inside the Sale twenty-two saw the Bears push the hosts over their own try line with co-captain Nielson dotting down. 

In the blink of an eye, Bears had their fifth. Joyce flew out of the defensive line to put pressure on the hosts and she was rewarded as the ball was spilt, and she didn’t need a second invitation. The speedster picked up the ball and put her foot down to race under the posts from 50 metres out. 

Soon after, Joyce would go on to out-do her previous score. Marston intercepted inside the Bears twenty-two and offloaded to the flyer, who demonstrated her frightening pace and ate up the ground in front of her to dot down for her second score.

Sale wouldn’t go down without a fight and twice crossed late in the second half through Lisa Neumann and Gwenb Pyrs to reduce the final deficit. 

Teams:

Bristol Bears Women: 15. Stoeger-Goddard, 14. Kyara Martin, 13. Pheobe Murray, 12. Amber Reed © , 11. Jasmine Joyce, 10. Elinor Snowsill, 9. Kayleigh Powell; 1. Ellie Mulhearn, 2. Abbie Parsons, 3. Sarah Bern, 4. Natalia John, 5. Hollie Cunningham, 6. Marlo Boyd, 7. Alisha Butchers 8. Rownita Marston

Impact Players: 16. Abbie Parsons, 17. Sophie Phillips, 18. Delany Burns, 19. Alice Lockwood, 20. Lucie Skuse, 21. Courtney Keight, 22. Amy Coles, 23. Kyara Martin

Sale Sharks Women: 15. Wooden, 14. Delany, 13. Irwin, 12. Perrin, 11. Neumann, 10. Daley-McLean, 9. Grieve; 1. Prys, 2. Kelly, 3. Abu-Marzouq, 4. Davies, 5. Howat, 6. Perris-Redding, 7. Field, 8. Stafford

Replacements: 16. Fielding, 17. Leigh-Bellerby, 18. Houghton, 19. Irwin, 20. Hibbert-Jones, 21. Cornforth, 22. Wallace, 23. Calton

Key Moment: Clara Nielson

A brilliant first half display from the Bears saw them take a comfortable lead going into the break and they needed to back it up in the second period.

With little over two minutes played in the second half, the forward pack took matters into their own hands and set up a devastating driving maul to allow Nielson to crash over the chalk. 

Power. 

Player of the match: Kayleigh Powell 

Playing out of position is a big test for any player, but seems to be no big issue for Kayleigh Powell. 

The natural full-back showcased her many talents at the Corpaq Stadium this afternoon with an assured performance in the number nine jersey. 

The Wales 7s and 15s flyer capped her stand-out performance with a fine solo effort in the first half as she skilfully chip through and regathered her own kick to dive over the chalk. 

Versatile.