Valkyries 6-27 Aylesford Bulls Ladies
Women’s Premiership
Sixways
WORCESTER Valkyries opened their Women’s Premiership campaign with a heavy defeat to Aylesford Bulls Ladies at Sixways on Sunday.
Early territory and possession showed great promise for the hosts as skipper Lisa Campbell burst forward to break the Aylesford defence on several occasions.
However, frustration began to build for Worcester as a dominant drive down in the Aylesford 22 could not be converted into points.
Megan Goddard eventually got Valkyries off the mark with a penalty after 20 minutes, but the visitors responded when Fiona Pocock dashed 30 metres down the pitch to score the opening try of the game, before Jessica Wooden added the extras from the conversion.
Rachel Lund made life difficult for the Bulls defence with darting runs and solid hand-offs and Ceri Large also proved to be influential for Valkyries in the first half.
Goddard then added her second penalty of the game as Valkyries entered the break trailing by a point.
Early pressure in the second period did not pay off for Valkyries as Aylesford put their stamp on the game, scoring two tries within three minutes.
First, Davinia Monteiro crashed over the tryline after a driving maul could not be stopped from an Aylesford lineout, then Ellisha Dee crossed the whitewash to open an 11-point lead.
The game was put out of sight when a freak bounce of the ball from a Bulls kick went over the head of Alexia Mavroudis and found its way to Pocock, who darted under the posts untouched for her second try of the match.
The hosts surged forward for a consolation try in the latter stages, but could not find a way through a resilient Bulls defence.
Valkyries travel to London this Sunday to take on last year’s league champions Richmond at 2pm.