“THAT was another clinical performance, I’m delighted for the group.”
Jersey RFC Women’s coach Dan Barnes was waxing lyrical after his side’s 46-0 home victory over Tonbridge Juddian Ladies yesterday.
This was the Jersey’s second game of the new Women’s NC 1 South East (South) season, however it was their first in front of their home faithful at CoinShares Park.
Entering week two off the back of a brutal 95-0 away win, skipper Katie De La Cloche and her cohorts were once again in dominant mood.
“I thought we did a really good job working out the situation of the game and opposition through the first ten minutes or so,” said Barnes.
“Our communication and game smarts was rock solid again and I thought, defensively, we were excellent again.
“To start the season with back-to-back big wins without conceding a point is a massive boost for this group.
“We’ve worked extremely hard with them over pre-season tightening up our defence and looking to be a bit more solid, and we’ve started putting it together on the pitch nicely.”
It took just eight minutes for the ladies in red to break through, with the inspirational captain De La Cloche touching down the game’s opening try.
As Jersey settled into their routine and hitting the tackles hard, the magnificent Seren Coombs took centre stage.
Collecting the ball inside the opposition half, Coombs took off, scorching the turf as she bulldozed her way through the Tonbridge line to score a superb solo try.
The conversion was successful, giving Jersey a 12-0 lead.
All was looking swimmingly for the Islanders, until a nasty challenge on fly-half Laura Turpin left her winded and writhing uncomfortably on the ground.
Not one to milk an injury, the crowd were aware it was a serious knock, and Turpin was forced off the field.
However, despite this set back, Jersey added one more score just before half-time.
Coombs once again set off on one of her famous marauding runs, taking players with her and offloading brilliantly to find Kim Hacquoil in space in the corner to touch down and extend the score to 17-0 going into the break.
“I thought our communication really stood out in the first half,” said skipper De La Cloche.
“We worked together as a unit brilliantly through out and again, once we broke through, we were ruthless in our execution.”
Not a team to take their foot off the gas, it took just two minutes after the re-start for the hosts to score again, this time through the fantastic Taye Boakye-Yiadom.
The perfect start to the second-half continued, as just after the 50 minute mark, Hacquoil took off on another superb defence breaking run, only to be held up just inches short of the line.
But that fifth try came just moments later, as replacement Tina Davies made an excellent introduction, following Georgina Ruellan down the left wing and profiting from the excellent offload for a tidy finish in the corner.
Despite the size of the Tonbridge pack, Jersey controlled the game beautifully forced regular mistakes from their visitors with their offensive pressure.
Abbie Syvret found herself free to touch down to bring the score over 30, before Kim Hacquoil made it a double for her just two minutes later.
The final score of the day saw Boakye-Yiadom, who had assumed kicking duties in Turpin’s absence, profit off yet another outstanding run from Coombs.
A tricky, executed conversion made the score a dominant 46-0, which the hosts would hold on to until the final whistle.
After another excellent personal performance, Ruellan said: “I thought we dealt with their physicality brilliantly.
“They were definitely a bigger unit than us, but that just shows how confident we are in our game at the moment.
“Things we’re working on are really starting to work well for us and to have won both opening games by such wide margins and not concede a single point is a great effort.”
Skipper De La Cloche offered the final word: “We never want to get too ahead of ourselves.
“We’re still new to this league and this standard.
“We have started brilliantly, but we know it’s just the start of this season.
“We are building good momentum early and sending a strong statement to the rest of the division.
“It’s been so much fun so far and we welcome a couple of weeks rest now before coming back against Horsham in three weeks time.”
Jersey Women’s RFC return to action on October 13 away against Horsham Women.
Jersey RFC Women: [1-8] Beth Rosser, Ella Vieira, Holly Bertram, Willow Le Luan, Emilie Langlands, Seren Coombs, Katie De La Cloche (c), Abbie Syvret [9-15] Bethan Hughes, Laura Turpin, Roxy Griffin, Taye Boakye-Yiadom, Georgina Ruellan, Claudia McGuigan, Kim Hacquoil
Replacements: Georgie Keens, Andi Vaughan, Tina Davies, Megan McCabe
Tonbridge Juddian Ladies: [1-8] Katie Hall, Nicola Baulf, Imogen Davnall, Jessica Booth, Charlie Skilton, Karleen Daley, Sophie Funnell, Rachel Marsh [9-15] Mary Anderson, Samantha Beaman, Elodie Davey, Fiona Beaumont, Remmie Gentry, Ireoluwatomiwa Adesuyi, Molly Irwin
