Hammers 1st XV women put in dominant performance against Guildford!

After weeks of seeing the 2XV head off of fun buses around the country, it was finally the turn of the 1XV to turn up early to the Eight Bells for their own coach trip. This time we were heading to Guildford to face one of the new teams in the league this year. It had been a scrappy battle when we faced them at home, with Hammers coming out victorious. It was now our chance to complete the set with an away win.

It was quite a windy – although fairly sunny – day when Hammers reached Guildford. The game started off with high intensity, the first few carries and tackles showing that this was going to be a very physical game from both teams. Hammers got the early momentum with hard forwards carries and solid set piece work carrying us into the Guildford 22. Amy saw her opportunity when Guildford gave away a penalty on the 5 metre line for a quick tap and go to score a classic 9 try. 0-5. Hammers continued to bring the pressure, working their way back into the opposition 22 from the restart. Again, hard carries from the forwards pulled the Guildford defense in narrow and the backs were able to exploit the space with Lara stepping across from short range to score under the posts. 0-12. It was Kaye’s turn to make it on to the scoreboard next, showing why she’s been put in the back line, smashing through the defense with a lovely inside ball from Alex W. 0-19. The home side were not discouraged, however, and came back fighting. Hammers put on a superb defensive effort in our 22. Through 9/10 phases of Guildford attack the defense stayed strong and eventually forced the error. Hammers regouped, worked up the pitch and back into the Guildford 22. A strong driving maul from the lineout made good metres before quick hands from the backs allowed Chloe E to dive through on the wing. 0-26. Guildford kept fighting and their hard carries combined with a couple of penalties took them into the Hammers 22. A penalty at the maul gave the opportunity for a quick tap and go score. 5-26.  Half Time.

The second half began as a bit of an arm wrestle, with both teams working to get the upper hand after the break. Despite a long session camped in the Guildford 22, Hammers came away without a score and were soon under pressure in our own 22. Hammers defense stayed strong and Lara read the defense perfectly to grab an intercept and sprint under the posts from within our own 22, despite the best efforts at a tap tackle from the Guildford defense. 5-33. Guildford came straight back, however, exploiting mistakes and some ill-discipline to score 2 quick tries to try and change the momentum of the game. 17-33. It wasn’t to be for Guildford, however, as Hammers fought back from pressure within their own 22. Turnover ball from a Guildford attack allowed forwards to make some hard carries and once again create space out wide. Quick ball set Rachel free for a 50 metre sprint up the touch line to fix the full back before making a lovely offload to Kaye for the final score of the game 17-40.