By Zacharie Johnson-Pillon and Ben Thomas
UNIVERSITY of South Wales secured a 53-25 win over Bournemouth University in a high-scoring encounter at the USW Sport Park.
Both teams came in to the game off the back of their first wins of the season, and were therefore looking for consecutive victories.
USW started off the stronger as Emily Pratt ran through several players from her own half, but she failed to score as the Bournemouth fullback managed to thwart her and she dropped the ball leading to a scrum inside the visitor’s 22.
Following the scrum the away side broke out, and at the second breakdown Molly Muir picked up the ball, ran down the line and scored in the right hand corner.
USW quickly regrouped and brought the scoreline back to five all when Pratt evaded the Bournemouth defence in their 22, and the flanker surged to the line to level the score.
USW went on to assert their dominance with five more tries scored in the first half. Jasmine Hare was the star player for the home side and the fly half managed break through the line to score and stretch the her sides lead to 34-5.
On the stroke half time though, Jenna Baretta managed to get in behind USW’s defence off a tap and go penalty which gave Bournemouth a hint of optimism as they went in to the second half trailing 34-10 to the hosts.
USW started the second half as they meant to go on. Straight from the restart USW ran under the posts following some fantastic play and neat hands to make the score 41-10.
After a strong display of defence from both sides, it was the away side who broke free when Abby Wyn bundled over the line on the right side of the field to minimise the deficit by making it 41-15.
Wyn scored again just moments later as she found room to run under the posts as Bournemouth threatened to achieve a miraculous comeback.
USW quickly diminished any hope of a fightback though, as Lucy Evans used her blistering pace to run around the Bournemouth defence to further the lead to 46-20.
Bournemouth bounced back and added another try as Wyn completed her hat trick. However, the home side ran under the posts one last time before the ref blew the final whistle to bring the game to a halt, as USW ran out 53-25 winners.
