Mattioli Woods Welford Road Archives - Ealing Trailfinders Rugby Club

Trailfinders Women beat Leicester Tigers 36-17 in a scrappy affair away at Welford Road in PWR Round 5.

A brace from Emma Taylor, along with tries from Chloe Rollie, Rosie Inman, Julia Schell and Caity Mattinson, secured Trailfinders a bounce-back win following their narrow loss to Exeter Chiefs last week.

The result leaves Trailfinders Women 6th in the PWR table, five points outside the playoff spots, with a game in hand on Harlequins in 4th.

Trailfinders started perfectly at Welford Road, which has been the theme so far this season, having scored within the first five minutes in all of their first four games.

The opener came from Rollie, who stepped past two Tigers defenders to streak away over the line.

Despite the early try, Tigers were undeterred and grabbed the momentum, working their way up the field, although unable to score as Trailfinders turned over Tigers lineout ball.

Inman then widened the gap as another wayward Leicester lineout was pounced on by Tyson Beukeboom, passing to the winger who then finished with aplomb.

Tigers then replied via Francesca McGhie, who broke down the left wing and reached her own kick behind to dot down.

The rest of the first half was characterised by inaccuracy. Both sides failed to keep the ball off the floor for large swathes of the final 15 minutes, and neither team could add to the scoreboard.

Half Time: Leicester Tigers 5-10 Trailfinders Women

Leicester came out of the changing rooms the better of the two teams. Julia Omokhuale crashed over from short range to give the hosts the lead following Claire Gallagher’s conversion.

Tigers stayed on top, and Trailfinders continued to be penalised at the breakdown and the scrum. Disaster followed as Cassandra Tuffnail, having just replaced Sara Seye, was yellow-carded for repetitive scrum penalties against the team.

Strangely, however, this was seemingly the spark the visitors needed to get back in the game.

Rollie intercepted a Tigers wide pass that looked for all money to be creating a try and flew away but was caught by McGhie running back to cover. Rollie then found Schell with a switchball, who walked under the sticks to give Trailfinders the lead back.

A wonder try followed from Trailfinders. Back to their Globetrotting best, they produced a sequence of beautiful offloads that allowed Mattinson to slide untouched over the whitewash.

The visitors looked determined to press on and continued to pin Leicester deep in their territory.

Taylor was next to add to the advantage, barrelling through the Tigers defence from short range.

McGhie then scored again to give Tigers fans some hope late on, but Taylor’s second from short range would end any hope of the hosts taking any points from the contest.

As a result, Trailfinders took all five points and look to be improving as they host the champions Gloucester-Hartpury at TFSC next week.

Full Time: Leicester Tigers 17-36 Trailfinders Women

Tries:

Trailfinders Women

Rollie (3), Inman (19), Schell (58), Mattinson (60), Taylor (66, 77)

Leicester Tigers

McGhie (25, 75), Omokhuale (47)

Conversions:

Trailfinders Women

Taylor (59, 67, 78)

Leicester Tigers

Gallagher (47)

Yellow Cards:

Trailfinders Women

Tuffnail (56)

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Trailfinders Women took their Allianz PWR points tally to 18 with a thunderous 29-14 victory over Leicester Tigers at Welford Road.

A brace from Liz Crake tries from Julia Schell and Abby Dow, and a Schell penalty gave the travelling side their third win in the league.

They move two points behind Harlequins in sixth with a game in hand on the Fellow West London outfit.

The match started slowly, with the first ten minutes featuring more kicking than usual in the Women’s game; both sides reacting to the damp Welford Road pitch, making the ball skid off the turf.

Trailfinders’ first opportunity would come 12 minutes in as Vicky Laflin broke down the right wing, only to be corralled just short of the Tiger’s line.

The home side were penalised as they scrambled to stop Trailfinders, who took the quick tap, and Crake crashed over the line to open the scoring.

The second try came just five minutes later. Laflin picked a sharp line off a scrum, breaking through untouched, and the winger fed Schell, who broke through two half tackles to score.

Trailfinders continued to dominate the play as Tigers struggled to get out of their half.

Then Trailfinders again broke through the Leicester line, held just short of the try line by the scrambling defence. However, Tigers were called for a knock-on and, due to an early shove from the home side, Trailfinders quick-tapped the free kick, and Dow finished clinically in the right corner.

Tigers answered right back through Elis Martin just two minutes later as Trailfinders momentarily took their collective feet off the gas. However, this was a minor blip.

Crake finished the second half perfectly for Trailfinders, smashing through Tigers’ wall at the end of a series of pick-and-go’s.

As a result, the teams would enter the sheds with the scoreboard reading 26-7 Trailfinders.

Despite the first half dominance of the team in purple, Leicester would be the ones to come flying out of the break.

Tahlia Brody scored just three minutes after the restart, giving Trailfinders a worrying wake-up call.

However, Trailfinders quickly took the reins back, and Schell’s right boot would widen the gap to more than two scores after eight minutes of the second term.

The away side continued to toil and had multiple opportunities to score for the rest of the second half. However, the scorers were not troubled for the remainder of the game.

As a result, Trailfinders took all of the points in what was arguably their most complete performance in their maiden Allianz PWR voyage.