On Sunday, Barnes Women 1st XV traversed London to take on East London Vixens. On our last meeting, at home in November, Barnes won convincingly 64-0 but we knew they would be a stronger team at home.

Ruth opened the scoring just 3 minutes in after a quick turnover from the kick off and then a well worked ball by the backs.

Barnes continued with clinical, structured play. The forwards made good ground through strong carries and the backs easily outpaced theirs. Compounded penalties resulted in a yellow card for East London which Barnes capitalised on and the score at half time was 35-0 after tries from Fiona, Liv, Sasha and Noor.

To their credit, East London came out after half time with a renewed vigour. Their defence became much stronger, and they were quicker to the breakdowns resulting in a number of turnovers. Barnes became a bit complacent and unforced errors allowed East London in for 2 tries making the score 35-10.

Barnes soon pulled their socks up again, reset and hit back strong. Despite also being on the receiving end of a team yellow card, Barnes played fast, free flowing rugby and went over for two more tries.

Liv Ponsford expertly converted 5 of the 7 tries scored.

The final score was 47-10.

The coaches awarded their player of the match to Coz for her excellent work in the front row and round the park.

Forward of the match went to Sasha who held up two tries and made a number of turnovers.

Back of the match was awarded to Jen for her strength and grit on the wing.