A Triumph in Turriff
Turriff 17 – 39 Perthshire Women
Seven try Perthshire open Plate campaign with strong performance on the road.
Perthshire women travelled to Turriff for their first ever match in the National Plate competition. The long bus trip didn’t stop Perthshire from starting brightly, dominating the first 2 minutes with some controlled phase play, finished by a dive over the line from Fiona Gordon. The try was converted by Sarah Blackwood.
A few minutes later, Perthshire made a good break up the right wing, but the ball was lost in contact and Turriff exploited the broken play and scored their first try of the day.
Perthshire’s next two tries both came from sustained pressure, with some good handling by backs and forwards, to be well finished off with some determined running by Lydia McGinley. Perthshire continued their positive play and were rewarded again when Alex Ward used some excellent footwork to beat the defence for a fourth try.
Late in the first half, Lydia was able to keep a clearing penalty kick infield and after some effective offloads and rucks, Heather McKenzie stormed over for a fifth try. Turriff finished the half with a well worked try of their own, taking the half time score to 12-27.
The start of the second half was very evenly contested, but a sharp piece of work from Paula Watson (making a welcome return after a broken arm) 5 metres from the Perthshire goal line allowed Chloe Bennett to make a great break all the way to cross the opposite try line. This sixth try was successfully converted by Sarah.
Turriff put ‘Shire under pressure during the next few minutes and an untidy defensive lineout allowed them to touch down for their third try. Turriff continued to battle hard but some determined defence from ‘Shire kept up the pressure.
A scrum inside the Turriff 22 was taken against the head by Sarah. Heather picked up at number 8 and made a good break. The recycled ball was passed out to Lydia who scored her third try of the day taking the final score to 17-39, an excellent win on the road.
We look forward to playing Moray in our next match at the North Inch on Sunday 17th February with a 2pm kick-off. All welcome to cheer the women on along in the Plat campaign. We wish Turriff well for the rest of their season.
Photos taken from Gareth The Photographer.
