Saints maintained their 14 month unbeaten run at home after a patchy performance against Henley Hawks.

Coming into the game, the home side we’re looking to press on after last weeks triumph over league leaders Blackheath.

The game started slow, with Henley having the lions share of possession and territory. The Saints defence worked tirelessly to hold the onslaught, before breaking away to allow Siobhan Drummond to crash over to open the scoring 7-0.

Henley responder on the stroke of half time after exploiting the Saints’ failure to clear out their own half. Building the phases and pressure in the Saints 22 leading to their winger dotting down out wide to take the score line to 7-5 into the interval.

After making some personnel changes, the Saints retook the field with a renewed energy and quickly extended their lead after a flowing attack spanning the width of the pitch. After powerful forward carries to tie the defence in, Steph Plunkett touched down after getting outside the rush defence to take the score to 14-5.

Not satisfied with her first score, Plunkett added another as she changed the direction of attack to expose the narrow defence, extended the Saints lead to 19-5.

Just as they did in the first half, Henley responded with a try after the Saints conceded numerous penalties in their own half. 2 quick tap penalties gave them field position, and their forwards eventually got over the line to reduce the Saints lead to 19-12.

The Saints had the final day as Ange Wadham powered through the guard defence to take the final score to 26-12.

A much improved performance from the Saints with some phenomenal attacking play in patches throughout the game. However, they will rue the amount of penalties conceded and how they failed to protect the ball.

The Saints have a week off before they travel to Bath, looking to carry on the momentum from these two latest wins.

Paul Adams,

Team Manager