USW slip to a narrow defeat in the opening game of the season to the team from the south coast of England.
In a stop start game due to injuries neither USW or Southampton really took a hold of the game at the USW sports park and it could have gone either way. Unfortunately for Mark Hutton’s ladies they just fell short to a team that last season they beat twice.
Southampton controlled the first quarter of the encounter but struggled to find a way through the stubborn USW defence. In the 16th minute however UoS did manage to break the deadlock after their Captain and second row threw an outrageous Sonny Bill Williams style offload to teammate Abbie Haysom who beat the defence to score in the corner. Southampton grabbed their second try in the 31st minute through number 8, Charlotte Hussey after a number of pick and go’s on the USW line. After this however, USW went through their best spell of the half, eventually resulting in a try for Nina Moore who hit a good angle to dive through untouched to finish the half.
Two quick tries from USW in the 10 minutes after half time from a barnstorming run from all action prop Ruby Cox and a lovely dummy from smooth outside-half Jasmine Hare put USW into the lead for the first time. However, the reds lead only lasted 6 minutes as Southampton replied after some quick hands in midfield released Alex Vijay to score. Captain Jessica Foote added the extras for the first points from the boot to be scored from either side.
USW’s Harriet Braithwaite was sent for a 10-minute break by the referee for a high tackle in 61st minute which didn’t enhance USW’s chance of a late comeback. The game was signed, sealed and delivered in the 77th minute after the best move of the match released winger Haysom who raced in from halfway to score her second of the afternoon.
USW will be disappointed they couldn’t come away with a win in their opening game against a team that looked to be pretty evenly matched. Captain Keely Ward was impressed by her side despite defeat saying “We were really good, we just weren’t gelled which is disappointing”. Focus now turns on next weeks trip to University of Gloucestershire where they will need to be more clinical in attack than they showed at the Sports Park today. Ward was keen to emphasise we will see a difference in 7 days “We’re going to work on our line-outs, backs moves and running lines as we didn’t want to overcomplicate things this week”. They will also be looking forward to the return of Welsh international duo Jordan Hopkins and Georgia Evans.
Haydn Evans 