.jpg)
17 hours ago
1
Harlequins Women and the Loughborough Lightnings kicked off the new season of the PWR under the lights of Twickenham Stoop as the Quins came away with a strong win.
Harlequins, who came third in the last season after beating the Bristol Bears in the third-place play-offs, demonstrated their strength coming into a new season as they emerged with a 52 - 42 victory.
A high intensity game
It was a game of huge numbers with an impressive 14 tries scored - an exciting demonstration of what is to come as the PWR performs in front of a massively increased audience off the back of the Women’s Rugby World Cup in September.
It was Loughborough that came out stronger at the start with two early tries courtesy of Bo Westcombe-Evans and Lucy Calladine establishing them with a significant lead.
However, Harlequins were more than happy to play catch up and their points quickly came flooding in as Abbie Flemming powered over the line after an effortless offload from Jade Konkel, followed soon after by Beth Wilcox intercepting the ball and dotting it down under the posts.
The Lightnings tried to re-establish their lead once more as Alicia Maude outsmarted the Quins defence, but the hosts retaliated yet again to level the match with a penalty try following a powerful scrum.
The battle for the lead saw some Red Roses action as Ellie Kildunne fed the ball to Lauren Torley to allow Harlequins to take the lead for the first time, before a sneaky try from Sadia Kabeya put the Lightnings back in front as half time rolled in.
Harlequins' second half determination
Harlequins kicked into another gear as the second half got underway, evidently fed up with the stalemate the two sides found themselves in.
Tries from Nicole Wythe and Claudia Pena saw the hosts storm ahead, and they seemed to be falling into a lethal rhythm that the Lightnings were struggling to disrupt.
However, a yellow card dealt to Sara Svoboda for successive infringements put a spanner in that slick machine, and Loughborough almost instantly capitalised on the woman down as Kathryn Treder powered over the whitewash.
The blow-for-blow nature of the game continued right up to the final whistle, as Jade Konkel clocked more points for Quins before Loughborough’s Amelia Williams narrowed the gap almost instantly.
Ultimately however, Harlequins had done enough to be able to defend their hard-fought lead, and after their eighth and final try from Hannah Sims in the waning moments of the game, they cemented their toughly contested victory 52 - 42.
English (US)