Penryn ladies had their longest away journey of the season, as they travelled all the way to Bath 2s with a squad of just 16 players to face the formidable team currently in third place in the league.
Penryn didn’t let the travel or the size and experience of the large Bath squad intimidate them and showed their physicality and determination from kick off and kept fighting till the final whistle. The Bath players may have been expecting an easy ride but the Cornish side were not going to be a push over. Thanks to a solid defensive effort from the whole team along with some heroic tackles on the line from flyhalf Coppen-Gardener and Prop Watson, as well as a never give up attitude from the pack who held off three consecutive scrum attacks, it took the home side over 20 minutes to score their first try, a massive achievement from the visitors, who were by far the underdogs on the day.
When carrying the ball both the Penryn forwards and back hit the line at pace and were able to penetrate the strong Bath defence several times with some great lines of attack, most notably from centre Hawkins, wing Beynon and number 8 Derrante. In defence Penryn made Bath work for their points, forcing errors, driving them back and turning over ball by defending quickly off the line as a team as well as with some exceptional individual crunching tackles particularly from centre Salem, captain Hampton and prop Penrose. Scrum half Dennis had to put up with some ‘below the belt’ opposition in her opposite number but never let the experienced 9 intimate her, being one of the most experienced of the Penryn side, she knew how to handle the oppositions tactics.
At the break down it was Bath who at first dominated, getting there quickly and securing their own ball and on several occasions turning over Penryn ball, but as the match progressed and Penryn found their game the visitors began to compete more physically in the rucks, with flanker Saberton running the show, stealing ball on her own and recycling attacking ball to allow Penryn to set up some effective passages of play at times throughout the match.
Sadly the speed, experience and fitness of the Bath side overcame the plucky visitors on this occasion, who were unable to tune their fight and passion into points, with the match ending 50-0. However despite the loss this was one of Penryn’s finest performances in terms of their physicality, commitment and team spirit. The game as a whole was one played in the true spirit of rugby with Bath lending Penryn several players who all gave 100% against their own team mates and helped the visors out enormously, in what was a hard fought but fair match. Penryn have a lot to be proud of from this match and can take away many positives as they see out the final stages of the season and hopefully cement their place in this national challenge 1 league and come back stronger next season to compete even more fiercely.
