Plenty of Effort

Sunderland had the better of the opening exchanges, and it took some good Wasps tackling to put their two powerful centres down.

It was the Wasps who opened the scoring after twelve minutes, although there had been a long stoppage, for what appeared a serious injury to one of the Sunderland front row. Fortunately she was able to return to play late in the second half.

Kendal had a penalty which was put to touch and the lineout was won, but Sunderland managed to hold up the drive, to get the put in at a defensive scrum near the line. A good Kendal drive meant the Sunderland scrum half had poor ball, and was forced into a kick upfield. Hayley Hodgson at fullback gathered the ball on the right, and made a long arcing run to the left touchline, where she scored in the corner. 5v0

Six minutes later the scores were tied with a Sunderland try 5v5.

This seemed to fire up the Wasps and they played their best rugby of the half. After good build up with a number of players making ground, the ball came to Hayley Hodgson on right wing, and she broke through a number of tackles for her second try 10v5.

The Wasps defence continued to control the strong Sunderland runners, but on several occasions when they did break through, they were met with crushing tackles from last line of defence Hayley Hodgson.

The Wasps took their slender lead into half time, and maintained it for the first twenty minutes of the second half.

Both teams had opportunities, with Amy Orrow in the Kendal back row, making a number of good runs, but the Sunderland defence got back to haul her down.

Finally Sunderland pressure on the Kendal line resulted in a try, and the only successful conversion of the afternoon gave Sunderland the lead for the first time 10v12.

Ten minutes later the lead was extended with a third Sunderland try. 10v17.

The Wasps were not finished, and the forwards put Sunderland under pressure in their twenty two, but could not get across the line.

When the ball was moved there was more good running, and finally Hayley Hodgson forced her way over for her third try. The conversion failed so Sunderland retained their narrow lead going into injury time. 15v17.

The Wasps went looking for the winning score, but instead it was Sunderland who added a fourth try 15v22

The referee decided to play on, but Sunderland looked after the ball well and when they were awarded a penalty this was tapped ten put to touch to end the game.

Plenty of positives for the Wasps, with the scrum and lineout working well. Their defence was strong especially in the first half, and the handling continues to improve.