Hornettes returned to winning ways with a narrow victory at North Petherton.

Hornettes travelled to North Petherton for their latest league encounter and the fixture secretary must have smiled at putting on a ladies’ fixture on St Valentine’s Day.

North Petherton kicked off with the wind at their backs and immediately had Hornettes on the back foot, causing then to spend the first 10 minutes camped in the 22-metre zone.

The hosts were unable to score within this attacking phase and slowly Hornettes worked their way down the pitch. The forwards began to work together as a unit, driven on by captain Abbey Constable, ably supported by the return of Tanya Carver Cox and Sara Curtis in the back row.

This forward momentum caused Petherton to infringe a number of times within their own 22-metre area and following a number of tap penalties, the ball was passed to full-back Georgia Liddington to score Hornettes’ first try.

The second half saw Hornettes do more of the attacking and they spent a lot of time in the Petherton half, not quite able to convert their pressure into points.

Laura Clarke made a number of incisive runs down the wing, but was stopped just short on each occasion. Midway through the half, Hornettes were reduced to 14 players for 10 minutes which gave Petherton the opportunity to attack and take back some territory.

Fortunately, the visiting defence held fast for this period and when back up to 15 players again, Petherton were reduced to 14 players and the Hornettes drove up the field and pressured the Petherton try line.

Again the Hornettes were awarded a number of penalties in quick succession, which resulted in Lindsay Pilgrim, playing at second row, crashing over the Petherton tryline, under the posts. Laura Clarke kicked the conversion to take the final score to 0-12, bringing the team back to winning ways.