Bristol Ladies v Saracens Ladies

Review

A storming second half comeback wasn’t quite enough for Bristol Ladies this afternoon, as they were beaten at home by Saracens in their first home game of the season.

In a high energy encounter Saracens raced ahead during the first half scoring two penalties and two tries, bringing the half time score to 0-16 to the visitors.

A yellow card to Saracens on 37 minutes gave Bristol an edge at the start of the second half, and Katie Mason demonstrated some impeccable footwork and running ability to take advantage and score a try, seeing Bristol into the game on 43 minutes.

Back to full strength, Saracens scored again on 60 minutes bring the score to 5 – 21, but Bristol kept on pushing. Two phenomenal tries from new girl Sydney Gregson on 68 minutes and 70 minutes put the home side within 7 points of victory.

After an injury reduced Saracens to 14 players, two yellow cards for Bristol gave Saracens the opportunity to add to their score, however some excellent defensive play from the Bristol team kept the visitors out with the final score remaining Bristol Ladies 15 – Saracens Ladies 21.

Although the team are yet to win this season, Head Coach LJ Adams praised the performance and is looking forward to next week’s encounter with Wasps. “This is a young and relatively inexperienced team and today, especially in the second half, you really wouldn’t have known that. We gave away too many penalties in the first half which allowed Saracens to gain some momentum, but we won the second half and if we’d played like that from the start of this game, we would have come away with the win. Our defense improved massively from last week and our scrum was as solid as ever – and once the girls got into the rhythm of the game they were fantastic’.

A special mention goes out to Sydney Gregson (back of the match) and Abbie Brown, who have only just joined the club after recently turning 18, and Naomi Smith and Louisa Steer who are also new to the team. Forward of the match today went to Izzy Noel-Smith for her incredible work off the back of the scrum.

With some key players hoping to return from injury over the next few weeks, and with the way the girls found their rhythm and fire in the second half today, next week’s fixture against Wasps is one not to be missed!