Great Defence not Enough

The Cougars took the kick off and started well but the Wasps had the lead after just two minutes.

As Carlisle attacked from just inside their half, Wasps outside half Tamar Benson intercepted and made ground before passing to Fleur Stanton, playing in the back row, who still had plenty to do, but powered away from the Carlisle defence to score. Tamar Benson then added a difficult conversion 7v0

The Wasps found themselves defending in their own twenty two for most of the rest of the half. The Cougars pack had control in the scrum making it difficut to get the ball. The lineouts were more even with both sides struggling to gather clear ball.

The Wasps finally cleared their lines to halfway, but having failed to get over from close, the Cougars opened their scoring from there. The Cougars pack drove the Wasps off their own scrum ball, and when the ball was moved into the centre, the Kendal defence was opened up when a tackler slipped, to let the Carlisle centre power through for an unconverted try 7v5.

The Cougars seemed to not deal with the restart kick, but it worked in their favour as the ball was finally gathered by their fulllback who made a run out of defence and it took a good tackle by Wasps fullback Rowan Boardley to prevent a score. The move was taken on by the Cougars No.4, but she was eventually stopped and when the ball was moved wide, a crunching Hayley Hodgson tackle, saw the ball knocked on in the tackle, and her opposite number was forced off with an injury.

The Cougars took the lead in first half injury time with a good run from their No.4

7v10 at half time.

The Wasps started the second half well, and a good break by Hayley Hodgson was ended when she slipped on the wet surface, but when shortly afterwards she had a second chance, she power through for the try, but the much easier kick was missed. 12v10.

The Cougars regained control and finally the lead after a quarter of an hour with an unconverted try 12v15

With three minutes of normal time to play the Cougars made the game safe, with a try from a quickly taken penalty. 12v20

A final try was added in injury time after a good run from Carlisle No.3, followed by the forwards driving over. 12v25.

Whilst the Wasps were not at their best, the Cougars deserved their win for a powerful display. Only excellent defence from the Wasps, kept the score down, with Tamar Benson one of a number putting in a number of crunching tackles to stop larger players.