Wasps Vs Barnsley Ladies

This weekends game went ahead despite the worries about the cold weather setting in. Kendal woke up to a frosty morning and the prospect of a very cold match, but the Wasps all turned up raring to go for their final match of 2017 against league leaders, Barnsley Ladies. The match was to be played on the artificial pitch as the grass pitch was unplayable. The warm up was thorough and the Wasps looked ready to give Barnsley a tough visit to Mint Bridge.

The Wasps kicked off the match playing at the River end of the pitch and took the game to Barnsley from the off. Some great pressure was applied to the Barnsley backs causing them to make some handling errors early on. Both forward packs held their discipline in the scrums and the ball was won cleanly and was able to be recycled quickly. Some nice play from the Wasps forwards up the right hand side of the pitch enabled the team to progress into the Barnsley '22. Whilst the Barnsley defence was scrambled, Wasps scrum half Cath Sewell shipped the ball to Fleur Stanton at 10 who got the ball quickly to Lauren Harkness at 12 who made a few metres before offloading the ball in a tackle to Hayley Hodgson at 15, running a hard line into the back line. Breaking through one tackle, it took a further two Barnsley players to bring her to a halt 5m out as she looked set to open the scoring for the Wasps. Unfortunately, amidst that tackle, Hodgson received a leg injury which was later diagnosed as a lower leg fracture.

A quick reshuffle of positions and play resumed shortly after. The Wasps continued to apply the pressure in the Barnsley half but the Barnsley fly half had a very good kick which helped relieve the pressure on lots of occasions for them but the Wasps continued to run at the Barnsley defence, forcing them to defend for long periods of time. Some great handling from an ever-improving Wasps back line put the returning Michelle Larkin into space at outside centre who always makes an impact and is very difficult to catch and stop!

The Wasps spent a lot of time in the Barnsley half gaining ground almost every time they had their hands on the ball but unfortunately, the combination of cold hands and some positive running from the Barnsley forwards, enabled the turnovers and Barnsley capitalised on that. Barnsley scored twice in the first half, both by their left wing who was put in space and our replacement fullback, Tamar Benson found herself with a lot to do on her own to try and bring down the winger at full tilt with only one outcome on her mind as she headed towards the tryline. Her efforts were not gone un-noticed though, as she was awarded the player of the match from the Barnsley Coach at the end of the game. Both tries were converted by superb conversion kicks from their fly half. The Wasps came close to getting over the try line on a couple of occasions from Michelle Larkin who showed off some footballing skills to kick a loose ball through but was beaten to the touchdown by the Barnsley Fullback who got their just before her to kick the ball out. Amy Orrow at Number 8 also got close to scoring from the Wasps favoured blindside move, but was stopped over the try line by a couple of defenders forcing the knock on.

During the half time break, the mood was positive and the hunger for a score was evident amongst the players and so heading into the second half, the Wasps kept the pressure up and gave 100% as always, despite being a relatively inexperienced side.

The second half tries didn't come easy for Barnsley, they still had to be imaginative and work for them and the Wasps didn't allow any of them to be runaway tries like in the first half. There were lots of long periods of defending that the Wasps had to do, and the girls were taking some big hits from strong Barnsley runners. Amy Butler put her body on the line making a tackle near her own try line and came off with a bashed nose and lip for her troubles, but that just shows the commitment of the Wasps players. Some substitute changes were made from both teams bringing fresh legs on and changed the tempo of the game again, meaning both teams had to continually adapt to what was in front of them. The Barnsley front row forwards enjoyed themselves making lots of carries, especially the tight head prop who managed to bounce off the tackle of two of the Wasps back row forwards, leaving the final tackle to Cath at scrum half. The same prop broke through and found herself one on one with Tamar at fullback who made an immense tackle to slow the play down in orderfor the Wasps defence to reset. One final blow to the Wasps was when Amy Orrow picked the ball up from the back of the scrum and carried hard down the left wing but as she was tackled, her ankle was badly injured. The referee decided that was enough and blew the final whistle on the game. Despite the Wasps best efforts, Barnsley kept a clean sheet but were very gracious in their win, congratulating all the players on the efforts they all put in.

Players of the match were:
Forward - Eve Joseph
Back - Chelsea Clarkson
Opposition choice - Tamar Benson