Friendly
Blaydon Kites 34 v Percy Park Panthers 25
Park go close as Bulldozer and Gicquel notch two each.
Friday evening saw the Percy Park Panthers travel to Blaydon RFC to face a strong Blaydon Kites side on the AGP (Artificial Grass Pitch) at Crowtrees.
An inexperienced Blaydon front row meant the game was played with uncontested scrums which was to eventually tip the balance in the Kite’s favour as the superiority of the much stronger Percy Park forwards was negated.
To add insult to injury the Panthers suffered 3 late cry offs from their back line due to illness and injury and took to the field with a hastily reorganised team of 14.
Things looked bleak 30 seconds after the kick off when the strong Kites backline carved straight through the Panthers and Leah Greenwell scored under the posts and Jo Marley added the conversion to go 7-0 up.
To their credit however the Panthers immediately grasped the need to fill the field and the Kites realised that the Panthers were not going to lie down. A series of strong forward drives, with some excellent offloading, led to 2 unanswered tries from prop Steph Gicquel and lock Shonie Sansom to give the Panthers a 10-7 lead.
The Blaydon’s backs found their way through the Panthers patched up back line on two occasions before halftime courtesy of a second try from Leah Greenwell and another from Georgia Gainford. Percy Park faced a 17 -10 deficit at the interval.
The Panthers renewed their forward effort in the second half battering the Blaydon pack with some powerful running and excellent offloading. Steph Gicquel scored her second with a 30 yard sprint to the line after breaking 2 tackles to haul the Panthers back to 17 -15.
Blaydon ran in another try from Jo Marley shortly thereafter converting it herself to make the score 24 -15 before the Panthers powerhouse tight head Prop Laura “The Bulldozer “ Lodge scored 2 tries in succession to take the Panthers into the lead 25-24 in a breathless 5 minute period.
The Panthers backs also started to feed off the steady stream of possession and ably led by debutant Lauren Jones started to trouble the experienced Kites backs.
With 10 minutes to go there was nothing separating the 2 teams until a quickly taken penalty saw confusion reign in the Panthers defence as a result of a misunderstanding of the referees “don’t touch her” instruction which led to Blaydon’s scrum half Meg Behan running in unopposed under the Panthers posts; Jo Marley adding the conversion.
A last minute try after a mazy run from the Blaydon wing Georgia Gainford, converted by Jo Marley, earned Blaydon a slightly flattering 38-25 score line in what was yet another fantastic advert for women’s rugby in the North East.
Representing Percy Park RFC:
Forwards:1.Stephanie Gicquel , 2.Alexandra Goldsbrough,3.Laura Lodge,4.Shonie Sansom, 5.Tina Attersall-Colclough, 7.Anna Golightly (Captain), 6.Maria Chisholm, 8.Katie Shanley
Backs: 9.Rachel White, 10.Lauren Jones, 11.Rebecca Casey, 12.Sarah -Jane Laybourne, 13.Katie Louise Prince, 14.Mya Yasmin
Finishers: -no finishers as the teams played 14 aside