Aylesford Bulls ladies bring Woodbridge’s unbeaten run to an end in style at the weekend.

Aylesford Bulls ladies welcomed newly promoted Woodbridge ladies to the Jack Williams memorial ground for their first league game of the season in what was their first ever meeting. Woodbridge arrived with the reputation of a strong side with a talented back line who like to spread the ball wide and were undefeated for the whole of last season.

Following a strong pre-season, Aylesford gave competitive debuts to three new players. Ex-England captain Catherine Spencer packed down at No: 8, German 7’s internationals Lisa Bohrmann at outside centre and Rafica Schneider on the wing.

Aylesford were in control from the off, always in control at the breakdown producing clean quick ball. The well balanced back row of Alice Pettitt, Liz Philp and Spencer we’re making inroads and it was only a matter of time before Woodbridge’s line was breached. Prop Becky Schorah crashed over for the first. The Bulls were soon back in opposition territory and classy Fijian fly half Ema Vereivalu shrugged off a couple of half tackles to go over for the next try.

It wasn’t long before the gaps started to appear in the middle and inside centre Clair Richardson received quick ball on the Woodbridge 22 to glide through and go in under the posts. Woodbridge were now struggling to contain Aylesford’s quick play and veteran 2nd row Michele Mayhew who seems to be enjoying an Indian summer in her playing career hit a ball at pace to go in for her forth try in three games. Spencer was next up going in from the 22 after good support play taking a pop from Richardson after a half break.

The Woodbridge defensive line was almost non existent now and the Bulls backs were breaking through at ease. Woodbridge fly half Louise Rickard who is the worlds most capped international player with 112 caps for Wales and appeared in the 2010 world cup ran herself in to the ground trying to make the cover tackles to no avail. German flyer Bohrmann took full advantage to go in for the next two tries both from around the half way line.

Returning winger Sam Olliver playing her first competitive game after a year off finished the first half scoring with a long range try as Woodbridge had no answer to her pace. Philp converted six of the eight first half tries.

Woodbridge held out for a brief while in the 2nd half and the play became a bit broken as the Bulls made several changes but Vereivalu managed to add another two and the powerful Schneider bagged a couple for herself as well. The bulls offloading and interplay was superb throughout and it was from one such phase that Olliver added her 2nd in the corner. Pettitt had the last say as she hit the ball at pace and broke three tackles to plunge over. Philp added another two conversions to take her total to eight.

The match official selected ex-England U18 back rower Pettitt as forward of the match and Aylesford’s third German international Richardson as back of the match.

Many thanks should go to Woodbridge for making the long trip down from Suffolk, They never gave up. They are sure to put up a fight in this league once they get players back from injury and unavailability.

Aylesford team: French, Olliver, Bohrmann, Richardson, Schneider, Vereivalu, Dootson, Schorah, Sieben, Phillips, Mayhew, Smith, Pettitt, Philp, Spencer.

Res: Norey, Tebb, Ravalo, Faithful, Jeynes, Parker, Brimsted