Varsity 2012: King’s Women Speechless as UCL Run Riot

The Women kicked off a fantastic day for UCL as they beat King’s with a convincing score line of 28-5.

As the sun shone down on Twickenham Stoop, the team looked more determined than ever to overcome an experienced King’s side.

And it took just 4 minutes for them to break through. After some great passing play from the scrum, Meghan Morley was able to beat the KCL line and go over underneath the posts.

And it wasn’t soon after Morley scored the conversion to make it 7-0 that UCL were at it again. Tonje Lyssand outpacing the King’s defence after Bryony Simmons had drawn in the tackler for a simple run for the line.

Things really were starting to get embarrassing for our inferior neighbours of the Strand Polytechnic, and they never appeared to recover from such an early set back.

However, the best King’s could muster came in the form of a brief spell of pressure just before half time. Five minutes of sustained pressure by the ladies in red led to a scrappy but ultimately deserved try in the corner.

Such a wide angle naturally meant a difficult conversion for KCL kicker Trudi Mercer, who appeared to succumb to the pressure and was closer to hitting the Groundsman’s dog than clearing the post.

But just as King’s looked like they were taking a 14-5 margin into half-time, our elegant ladies struck again. Simmons again punching holes through the KCL defence, brushing off the tackles like spider webs in a dirty forest on the Strand, and going over once more.

And as the sides went in for half time at 21-5, you would have thought KCL would come out fighting in the second half, right?

Wrong. Straight from the kick off UCL were given the ball and fired straight through the back line. Simmons, who had an excellent game by anyone's standards, smashed through a weak King’s defensive line. She then offloaded to Lyssand, who beat her opponent to make it a fantastic four for UCL.

As KCL appeared to dominate possession for much of the rest of the game, they managed to do nothing with it. Bereft of ideas, pace and confidence to break through the resilient UCL defensive line, they parked the bus on the half way line, and never really looked like getting back into the match.

This one sided affair finished 28-5 to the superior university, who outplayed the opponents from start to finish. At the final whistle, jubilation rang out amongst the squad and the fans, giving great optimism too, for the men’s imminent victory over their KCL counterparts. Much is predicted for the future for this promising university rugby team, and they will take great confidence for the rest of the season from such a complete performance.