East beats West at BT Murrayfield – Take One
The day after Scotland beat Samoa to qualify for the Rugby World Cup quarter finals, the National Stadium hosted two new ventures in the amateur game. The women’s match was between Edinburgh and Borders (East) and Glasgow and Caledonia (West). The inaugural Donna Kennedy Cup – named after Scotland’s most capped female player – gave players, who may slip through the usual selection channels, to show what they are capable of and, possibly, throw their hat into the International selection ring.
The men’s game (reported separately) was between U20 Academy selections from Edinburgh and Glasgow and West.
With both women’s teams containing a good mix of players with and without International experience, the match proved to be a fine example of the women’s game despite, what appeared to be a pretty one-sided score line.
The sides were fairly evenly matched in the opening quarter during open play, but East’s scrum quickly exerted dominance despite West’s International contingent and it was follow up play from a scrum that saw Lisa Martin over in the corner for the first try after 15 minutes. She missed the kick, but East were 5-0 ahead.
West fairly dominated possession and territory for the next period of play, but turnover ball inside the East 22 saw wing, Rhona Lloyd gallop the length of the pitch for a try under the posts. Martin then slotted home the kick and, 30 minutes in, East were 12-0 ahead.
Once again West got stuck in and reward came on 34 minutes with a try from a forward’s move, Heather Lockhart going over. With no further scoring in the half the break came with the score at 12-5 to East.
The second half was an entirely different affair, with East dominating the match and scoring a further four tries to West’s one, the first of these coming in the 49th minute scored down the left following sustained pressure on the West line (17-5) from sub, Alexia Mavroudis
This was followed up two minutes later following a 50 metre break up the centre by Scotland’s Emma Wassell, a move finished off by Megan MacGivor for the fourth East try. Lisa Martin scored the conversion to put East in a commanding 24-5 lead.
Just before the end of the third quarter, East encamped themselves on the West five metre line and a string of penalties was capped by a superbly accurate cross-field kick from Martin which Mavroudis collected to cross the line for her second try of the half and a 29-5 lead.
West then managed to hold onto possession and territory for the next few minutes and scored their second try following a blitz on the East defence (29-10).
However, their brief return to the score board was wiped away as East scored their sixth and final try from a fine swerving run round the outside of the West defence by No. 15, Chloe Rollie, followed by Martin’s second conversion of the day, to leave the final score at 36-10 to Edinburgh and Borders.
First up the stairs to the presentation was Karen Dunbar to collect the Keri Holdsworth Trophy for Player of the Match, followed by her team mates and, finally, captain, Lisa Martin, who raised the Donna Kennedy Cup to be presented in, what is hoped to be, the first of many such matches.
The Keri Holdworth Trophy was named in honour of the former Scotland forward and qualified physiotherapist, who tragically died in a road accident at the age of 36.
Images from the match will appear here over the next few days.
