St Neots 0-45 Peterborough

With Royston unable to field a team, Saints actively sought out a friendly and welcomed Peterborough back to St Neots with a warmth that the weather didn’t reciprocate.

Peterborough kicked off and without a clean take from Saints, found themselves with a line out just outside of the 22. They shipped it right then came back quickly to the left, creating the overlap and going over for their first try. A second try in quick succession had Saints identify and sharpen up their defensive work.

A strong start in the scrum gave Saints the upper hand and saw some attacking play with fly half Sophie Langham and centre Kirsty Wilson drawing in players in the centre, opening up an opportunity on the left but the ball didn’t quite make it to the wing.

Peterborough were made to work hard for their next tries. Saints won some penalties and used the boot of Langham to earn some line outs. Despite some strong play, Peterborough turned over the ball. Wilson put in a sit down tackle on the Peterborough 10 on the half way, but their 12 had some fancy footwork of her own, evading Saints' defensive efforts.

Strong running out in the second half put Peterborough under pressure. A mixture of attacking play and strong defensive tackles stopped Peterborough from getting into their flow, and Libby Robinson’s chasing of individuals breaking through the line required Peterborough to use their supporting runners to get their second half tries scored.

With more possession Saints were finding some rhythm but couldn’t break through for a real opportunity to score. Hyped up from a full nights sleep and parents watching on, Niamh Grant put in a great defensive shift and was a menace to the Peterborough defence. The forwards put in a strong unified effort to disrupt and turnover the scrums.

Despite the score line and the cold, positive talk lead by captain Megan Thody kept Saints fighting to the end and able to take away positives from the game.

Huge thanks to the supporters for their dedication to stand in the cold, run water and share their coats and hand warmers!

Forward of the match went to Niamh Grant, back of the match went to Libby Robinson and coaches player was Megan Thody.