Hornettes Ladies lost their final league game of the season to a late try by visitors Oakmeadians.

Hornettes Ladies played their last league game of the season at home against the Oakmeadians, who had travelled up from Bournemouth.

The hosts started strongly again and played almost the whole of the first-half on the attack, dominating both possession and territory. Hornettes’ Emma Small took a scrum against the head, and the ball went forward quickly through the hands of Rhi Tottle, Georgia Liddington, Lindsay Pilgrim and Abbey Constable, for Kerianne Williams to score the first try of the game.

From a penalty, Tanya Carva-Cox received quick ball and drove powerfully to draw in some of the cover defence, for Pilgrim to score in the corner.

Hornettes scored their third try when they secured good line-out ball and tried out a new move, which found prop Constable taking a pop pass at pace. She passed to Sam Dowling to set up Hannah Handsford to score in the corner for a half-time of 15-0.

After the break, it was almost a complete reversal of the first. The Oakmeadians took the game to Hornettes and within five minutes had scored in the corner.

The visitors scored two tries in quick succession, with one being converted to take a 15-17 lead. Hornettes replied with a number of tap penalties and scored a try when Constable crashed over the line to take the lead again.

The last few minutes were frantic with Hornettes defending for all their worth, but Oakmeadians managed one final attack to cross the line for the final score of the game, taking the final score to 20-22 to the visitors.