The game kicked off on time, at 1.30pm in good rugby playing conditions, with both sides fielding a full team of 15 players for this top of the table clash.
From the kickoff, Bury started with good individual drives forward from Roo and Darcey making early inroads into Shelford’s defence, following a spell of the home side maintaining good possession. After 3 minutes of evenly contested play, Shelford managed the first score with a fast individual breakthrough try from the half-way line by an impressively athletic Francesca.
For the next few minutes, Bury pressed Shelford back into their 22, resulting in a line out. From this, however, the away side threatened to score, ultimately prevented by an excellent tackle form the Bury full-back, Harriet.
A line out inside Bury’s 22 shortly followed, won for Bury by Lexie, showing great handling and passing, from a well-rehearsed and executed routine. The home side enjoyed another good period of play thereafter, keeping good possession from a highly-organised and tactically aware Shelford side.
On 9 minutes, Bury suffered a blow with Sophie Ross having to leave the field with a shoulder injury, to be replaced by Sharon. The home side pressed on, and following a lovely passage of play, fed Ilana on the wing who was able to use her pace to score Bury’s first try of the day.
Unfortunately, directly from the resulting kick off, Shelford turned the ball over and scored their second try from a breakaway, duly converted taking the score to 14 – 5 to the visitors on 15 minutes. This was followed by a good team try by Shelford on 19 minutes bringing the score to 21-5 following conversion.
Despite Bury showing improvement in the scrum and contesting well over the next few minutes, Shelford took the tally to 26 -5 after another try. The home side were not to be denied soon after however, as they forced the visitors back into within 5 metres of their try line following a strong scrum, with Roo powerfully carrying the ball over on 30 minutes.
Again, Shelford scored more-or less directly from the next kick off, wide on the right hand side bringing the score to 31-10, followed by the final, well worked and converted try of an entertaining first half, to close with the score on 38-10.
The 2nd half began brightly for Bury, with Emily on debut getting involved, helping the team keep the ball well. From an early line out the Vixens were well in the match and were keeping Shelford at bay, taking the play into the opposition’s 22, but good defending by the visitors forced a penalty, giving them all the opportunity they needed to counter at pace to score wide on the left after 48 minutes. This try was well converted by Lukcyana giving the scoreline an ominous 45-10 lead to the visitors.
Shelford started to impose themselves more and more as the game went on, using well-practiced set plays and kicking for touch impressively, when given the opportunity from any mistakes from the home team. On 52 minutes the visitors went over for their 8th try to make the score 52-10 after conversion.
Bury battled hard during an attritional passage of play with fine tackling again, in particular by Harriet again, with some moves showing attacking promise but not proving decisive. Shelford again took full advantage of any errors to take the game away from the Vixens in the closing stages.
Despite a final recorded scoreline of 60-10, the girls left the pitch to great applause from the home crowd who appreciated the efforts and perseverance shown by our players, in the face of such a high-quality opposition.
Shelford’s POTM – Francesca (voted by Bury). Bury Vixen’s POTM – Violet (voted by Shelford).