An unstoppable Charlotte Murray scored a try in each half to guide Neath to a 26-3 victory over UWIC in the Women’s National Cup final held at Beddau on Sunday.
The students were still in the game at the break, down just 3-7 but in the second spell Neath grabbed control and scored three tries with Amy Lawrence and Kerin Lake adding to Murray’s effort.
UWIC took control early on and from strong driving maul were awarded a penalty for offside with Yasmin Leung stepping up to put the first points on the board.
Neath then went on the attack showing great passing skills and lines of running but Adi Taviner was bundled into touch on the 22.
Neath’s first points came on the stroke of half time with an individual try run in by Murray from the half way line, successfully converted by outside half, Bethan Preece.
Neath took control in the second half and camped inside UWIC’s 22 but had to wait until the 61st minute to score when Lawrence broke through and drove hard for the line giving Neath their second try also converted by Preece.
In to the final quarter UWIC attacked on the outside, but a loose ball was scooped up by Lawrence and shipped out to Lake who ran 70m run in for the third try, also converted by Preece.
With Neath down to 14 players due to Kathryn Joseph being sin binned for an offence at the breakdown, a reinvigorated UWIC camped on the Neath 5m line but strong defence gave possession back to Neath and Murray ran in from the half way line to seal the victory.
Players of the match were Shona Powell-Hughes (Neath) who had an outstanding game for Neath and UWIC scrum half Larissa Muldoon. Other players who also stood out from the crowd included Lawrence and UWIC’s hooker, Rachel Cork, fly half Leung and No 8, Vicki Owens.
“I was proud of the UWIC effort,” said Kylie Wilson, UWIC Head Coach, “but our performance, particularly in attack, was not good enough on the day. Our defensive organisation was good but we were punished by missed tackles and turnovers. This group of young players will learn a lot from this game and will come back stronger next year.”
