Hornettes Ladies eased to a comfortable victory over Topsham, the first meeting between the two sides.

Hornettes Ladies 21 pts

Topsham Ladies 0 pts

Hornettes Ladies welcomed Topsham for their latest match and ran out 21-0 winners in the first encounter between the two sides.

The hosts fielded a changed side from the one which beat North Petherton last weekend, due to non availability and the return from injury of a number of players.

Hornettes had the majority of the possession and territory, but Topsham were resolute in defence, which was eventually broken when Cat Johns struck one against the head during a Topsham scrum.

Hannah Handsford picked up at No 8 and drove the ball into contact, the ball was taken on by Sara Curtis who offloaded to Abbey Constable to score from close range. Laure Clarke kicked the conversion for a 7-0 lead.

Hornettes continued to test the Topsham defence, with Sam Dowling making a number of storming drives. Just before half-time, Hannah Powell wrong footed the defence to run in from 20 metres and score under the posts, Clarke again converted.

The second half saw Hornettes camped almost entirely in the Topsham half. Using the breeze to kick for territory, they were able to pin the visitors back for long periods. Hornettes thought they had scored try number three when Beth Bennellick picked up the ball from close range, but was adjudged to have knocked on during the scoring motion.

They eventually scored following a number of tap and go penalties, when Tanya Carver-Cox drove the ball close to the try line before slipping to ball to Charlotte Cooper-Cox, who scored from close range. Clarke again converted taking the score to 21-0.

Hornettes continued to attack and again thought they had scored with the last play of the game when Kerrianne Williams took a quick penalty and reached out to touch down, but the referee was unsighted and blew the final whistle.