Boro Ladies edged out in bowl final
WITH silverware at stake, Littleborough’s U18s ladies were left to rue missed chances as Manchester Sirens took the honour of bowl final victors.
In the scorching sunshine at Grove Park, a fabulous first half performance from the visitors was unfortunately overshadowed by a dominant second half display from Manchester as they edged out a 27-15 win.
It have been so different when Littleborough shot into a two-score lead early in the first half. Centre Chloe Boardman made significant territory down the right and as the ball was recycled and moved out to other side, full back Paige Travis broke through the defensive line with a superb running line before offloading on the floor to Summer Harris to charge under sticks.
Littleborough continued to pile pressure on the home side and were rewarded for their efforts as Emily Hilton scored the second try from a close range drive.
Manchester registered their first points of the afternoon with an arching run from the inside centre, resulting in a try on the right hand side, before a quality offload in the tackle by the Siren’s fly half put the outside centre in. Jessica Chadwick was unlucky not to have stopped her from scoring but with the conversion being successfully taken care of, it was Manchester who had the slender lead.
After the break, Littleborough started much like they did in the first, taking the lead once more with a fantastic individual try from Boardman.
In the heat of the sparkling sunshine possession of the ball became more important the longer the game went on and it was the hosts who made it count. Constant pressure from Manchester close to the Boro try line was punished with an overlap on the right hand side as the winger dived over.
As soon as the visitors looked to regroup and play the game in the Manchester half, the Sirens winger broke down the right to score her second in quick succession. With a successful conversion to boot and with the score sitting at 24-12 to the home side, Boro had it all to do.
Boro managed to resist Manchester from scoring for at least four phases on the line, holding them up brilliantly. However from the resulting five metre scrum, the home side number 8 picked up the base of the scrum to dive over and seal the silverware.
The ladies can be hugely proud of their performance and though the victory and bowl were just out of reach, it was a brilliant journey to the final, one they can look back on with fond memories.