***SUTTON COLDFIELD RFC LADIES MATCH REPORT - 1st MARCH 2020***

Recently crowned league champions Sutton Coldfield Ladies remain on course for a home ‘Championship 2’ play off final after an emphatic 39-0 win on Sunday against 3rd in the table Five Ways, scoring 7 try’s and 2 conversions in the process.
Outside centre Jo Hart got the ball rolling after 15 minutes when she forced her way over out wide for her 9th try of the season with Kerrie-Anne Melsom adding a fine conversion for a 7-0 lead.
Captain for the day Katie Gregory increased the lead after 27 minutes when she was first to react to a loose ball, again Melsom added the extras pushing the lead out to 14-0.
The severely depleted Sutton squad were been given real examination by the hardworking visitors but time and again the much heralded ‘green army’ defence held firm with the back row of Charlie George, Charley Hope and teenager Bella Timmins putting in hit after hit, well supported by the girls in the engine room, Emma Clueit and Natalie Kennett.
After 39 minutes more great Sutton pressure on the ball in their own half forced the turnover from which teenage fly half Connie Bradshaw reacted quickest of all, fly-hacking the ball up the field and the chase was on led by Bradshaw and Jo Hart before Gregory, the game’s outstanding player, arrived on the scene to ground the ball over the line after a series of fly hacks though to claim her 2nd try of the afternoon and 10th of a superb personal season to date leaving the half time score at 19-0.
As the 2nd period got under way the flow of the game was spoilt by handling errors by both sides resulting in numerous scrums but, although severely tested by the visitors, the Sutton front row of ‘forward of the match’ Liz Fletcher, Candice Grayson and new signing from Richmond Ladies, Kelsi Butler, stood firm as did Rhian Etheridge and Charley Hope when later called upon to do shifts at the coalface.
Sutton’s defence continued to dominate with turnovers aplenty killing Five Ways and it was no surprise when teenage wing Carla Malek, later named ‘back of the match’, capitalised out wide with a brace of tries after 51 and 60 minutes extending the lead to 29-0 with the all-important bonus point 5th try also being secured in the process.
A degree of the fluency that had earlier been missing from Sutton’s play gradually showed itself the longer the game went on and there was almost a debut try for novice Shannan Cox out wide before she was agonisingly cut down.
The quick ball the Sutton backs had craved all afternoon was finally being served up and with Alison Livermore now orchestrating things at 10 the scores kept coming with Kerrie-Anne Melsom, cutting excellent running lines from full back, notching a fine brace for herself after 75 minutes and then in the last play of the game, making it a personal 6 for the season, leaving the final score as 39-0 and for Sutton the knowledge that a try bonus point win in their final game of the season at Rugby Lionesses on 15th March will secure a home ‘Championship 2’ play off final at The Roger Smoldon Ground where they have never been beaten in a competitive game in the last 3 seasons since the Women’s team entered the RFU leagues.
With at least ten frontline players missing from this win for one reason or another, the strength in depth of this special group of Sutton girls was never more tested than in this hard-fought, potential banana-skin, success over one of the strongest teams in the league and the selectors will surely be heartened by the number of players putting their hands up for inclusion in the ‘play off’ squad as preparation for ‘Le Crunch’ continues.

Photo - Katie Gregory, the game’s outstanding player and scorer of 2 try’s.

Gerry Shanahan
Team Manager
Sutton Coldfield RFC Women