Liz Philp’s late penalty ensured the Aylesford Bulls Ladies edged out their Blackheath conuterparts at the weekend.

Aylesford Bulls ladies travelled to Blackheath’s rectory field for the biggest game of the season so far with both teams winning six from six up to this point. The ladies were in confident mood and were out to avenge last seasons 45-00 defeat.

The first 10 minutes showed the Bulls haven’t been able to train together properly for three weeks due to a horrendous injury list, player commitments in Dubai and recent bad weather. Early handling errors kept the Bulls in their 22 and gifted Blackheath position in dangerous areas. With less than 15 minutes gone and the Bulls were unable to clear their lines.

A couple of strong drives from the opposition forwards sucked most of the pack in, the ball was then passed the Blackheath number 8 who took the ball at pace down a narrow channel to go over near the posts. This would be the last time the Bulls line would be breached and although Blackheath put the Bulls under more pressure during the rest of the half they never looked like scoring another try.

As the half went on the Bulls began to get into the game and looked very dangerous with ball in hand out wide. As half time came the Bulls knew they could up their game in the second half and the game was there for the taking.

From the kick off the Bulls had Blackheath under pressure in their 22 and were starting to put good phases together. Number 8 Catherine Spencer and fellow back rower Jade Binskin-Barnes made some powerful runs and from one such charge Spencer offloaded to young winger Mollie lynch who looked like she was going over in the corner but a good cover tackle halted her progress and in the tackle Lynch was hurt and had to leave the field.

This lead to the introduction of the Bulls all time record try scorer Sam Olliver from the bench on 55 minutes. Within two phases of her being on the field Olliver received the ball on the right flank 30 metres out following good hands from lock Michele Mayhew and centre Lisa Bormann she left her opposite number in her wake as she cruised in and managed to touch down just to the right of the post.

Back rower Liz Philp stepped up for the routine conversion but as she took her run up the ball fell off the tee, as she was in full flow she had no option but to strike the ball and amazingly she struck the ball perfectly to add the two points. Shortly after this the Bulls lost hooker Vicky Sieben who after a month out injured had battled excellently and was sorely missed at the lineout and with both other hookers out injured the ladies knew they would just have to battle on.

During a foray into the Bulls 22 a penalty at the break down was awarded to Blackheath on 65 minutes their fly half converted to leave the bulls trailing 10-7. The game was coming into the last 10 minutes following strong pressure in the Blackheath half after strong runs from prop Becca Schorah and winger Rafica Schneider. On 72 minutes the Bulls were awarded a penalty wide on the right in the 22 a quick tap from scrum half Katie Dootson was carried and recycled a couple of times before it was spun out to Fijian fly half Ema Vereivalu who stepped inside the covering defence to power over from 10 metres out, Philp just pushed the conversion wide.

With under five minutes to go Blackheath made their way into the Bulls 22 after a couple of handling errors gave up possession. The Bulls were caught offside and the Blackheath fly half once again converted to make the score 13-12 with two minutes remaining on the clock. The ball was pushed deep from the kick off and the pressure was kept on following a couple of line outs in the Blackheath 22.

The Bulls regained possession the game was now in injury time and with one last throw of the dice the Bulls attacked through the forwards and recycled the ball well. As they were starting to fracture, the Blackheath defence came up offside and the Bulls were awarded a penalty 20 metres out 10 metres to the left of the up right. Philp stepped up to calmly slot the penalty to give the Bulls a 13-15 win!

Forward of the match was awarded to open side Liz Philp not only for her goal kicking under pressure but also for her superb play in attack and defence often putting her body on the line. Back of the match went to Ema Vereivalu who as well as scoring a great try thwarted many Blackheath attacks with crunching tackles.

Team: French, Lynch, Borhmann, Richardson, Schneider, Vereivalu, Dootson, Schorah, Sieben, Phillips, Mayhew, Smith, Binskin-Barnes, Philp, Spencer.

Subs: Tebb, Cozens, Rowe, Parker, Saunders, Olliver.