COLCHESTER Rugby Club’s Iceni women’s team lost 14-10 at Lakenham & Hewitt, writes STEVE WHITEMAN.
It was a game of two halves, with Iceni getting two tries in the first half and Lakenham replying with two of their own, in the second half.
The difference was that the Norfolk women converted their tries, to seal victory.
It was level pegging for the first 20 minutes until the Iceni attacked down the left almost making it to the tryline.
Good pressure from scrum half Jess Brennan at the resulting scrum forced the defence to kick the ball straight into touch.
The ball was won from the lineout, moved quickly through several hands to centre Lucy Philpot to speed through for a good unconverted score.
Shortly after this the ball was moved to the right and fullback Chloe Mills sped through the defence to score a fine unconverted try to put Iceni ahead by ten points.
The two teams battled hard for the remaining part of the first half almost equally matched in the forwards and the backs.
At the interval, coaches Graham Seal and Danny Whiteman brought off the bench Queenie, Choe Inglis,Laura Hammond,Ema Vinter, Georgina McCarthy and Mallory Bolter to change the personnel of this young team two of whom, Layla Goodchild and Jess Sydenham, were making their first appearances.
After 20 minutes of spirited play by all the women, Lakenham gained a penalty in their red zone which they cleared by a kick to touch in the Iceni’s red zone.
Winning the ensuing lineout, Lakenham moved the ball to their inside centre who cut through the Iceni defence to score under the posts.
This try was converted, giving the hosts a 10-7 lead.
Ten minutes later Lakenham scored again to take the lead to 14-10.
Iceni kept their heads up and attacked their opponents’ line several times with captain Yaz Amber to the fore but could not get through the Lakenham defence.
This close defeat obviously upset the women but were buoyed by the praise from their coaches.
For all her hard scrummaging and work around the part prop Beth Haggan was awarded Player of the Match.
Iceni host Woodbridge on Sunday and would welcome lots of support.
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