Marine Nationale Women v Royal Navy Women
Marine Nationale 60 v 5 Royal Navy Women
For the first time both the RN Senior XV and RN Women travelled to France to face the Marine Nationale in the bastion of the French Navy, Toulon.
The first game of the day was the Marine Nationale Women against the Royal Navy Women, which promised to be an open running affair.
The French Women were quicker off the mark and made the Royal Navy Women pay for missed tackles by scoring 3 tries in the first 9 minutes (19-0).
The RN women regrouped and under the captaincy of Lt (Charlie) Fredrickson held the French Women at bay and followed this with some quick tap penalties that forced the French back into their own 22m.
It took the French until the 28 minute to score again with a well worked move that allowed the French International Centre to score an unconverted try (24-0).
The RN Women's scrum half AB (Loz) Morton was a constant thorn in the French side as she continued to snipe from set piece's supported by ‘Man of the Match' LPT (Andrea) Marshall and No 8 Lt (Helen) Leach.
Even with this stalwart defence and probing offence the Navy Women were unable to score and it was left to the French to finish the half with an unconverted try HT, 29-0.
The second half started as the first had, with the French getting on the score sheet with 2 quick tries, the 2nd of these left Marshall on the ground to be replaced by former Combined Services skipper Lt (Paula) Bennett-Smith RN. Bennett-Smith got the forwards on the front foot and gave the Navy Fly Half LET (Sarah) Jenkins a chance to release AB (Fiesha) Greene to attack the French back line. The French had to work hard to stem the Navy attack but eventually using the strong wind at their backs cleared there lines.
The French continued to keep the scoreboard ticking over until and it looked like they would keep the Navy at zero. However, even with the score at 60 points to 0, the Royal Navy women continued to press forward and a series of quick penalties gave the Royal Navy women the final score of the game FT 60-5.
Head coach Lt (Sam) Cuff RN was impressed with his sides determination and ‘never give in' attitude as well as giving him a ‘marker' to work to as this was only the 3rd fixture of the season for the Navy Women.
The team returns to Portsmouth to start there preparations for their first game of the 2012 Inter Service Championship against the RAF Women in Portsmouth on Wed 18 Apr KO 2pm.
Team:
LAC E Park (MASF Culdrose), AB C Lewis (COMPORFLOT), LET E Atkins (HMS Raleigh), NA(AH) C Penrose (RNAS Culdrose), LPT A Marshall (HMS St Albans), AS S Hargrave (HMS York), Lt C Fredrickson RN (Capt) (849 Sqn), AB L Morton (HMS Nelson), LET S Jenkins (HMS Richmond), LET V Thomas (HMS Nelson), LE E Swinton (HMS Dragon), AB F Greene (HMS Nelson), ET E Mamer (FPGRM), ET L Vakuruivalu (HMS Northumberland), LAET B Sharp (824 Sqn), Lt P Bennett-Smith RN (NATO Northwood), DAS B White (42 Cdo RM), ET S Mitchell (HMS Ocean).