Winscombe Under-15s girls are the SW regional champion in only their first season of junior rugby.

Exeter Saracens U15s girls 12 pts

Winscombe U15s girls 19 pts

WINSCOMBE Under-15 girls are the South West regional champions in their first-ever season of junior club rugby after winning a thrilling cup final against Exeter Saracens.

The village girls from Winscombe travelled to Exeter after wins over North Dorset and Weymouth in the quarter-finals and Newquay-Tavistock in the semis. An outstanding team effort, especially in defence was needed to see off an Exeter team, who had swept all before it prior to this fixture.

Winscombe started strongly and soon established a firm field position inside Exeter’s 22 metre line. Stout defence and excellent kicking from the home team kept the visitors at bay.

Eventually Ellie Darby crossed for the first try of the match after the excellent fielding of an Exeter clearance kick by Jess Cooksey, Liliana Podpadec added the conversion.

From the restart, Winscombe again came strongly and Jessie Anderson crossed for an unconverted try in the corner. This second score seemed to galvanise Exeter into action and they hit back with a converted try to make the half-time score 12-7.

The first 15 minutes of the second period saw both teams playing attractive free-flowing rugby and fully testing their opponents’ defence.

Gathering a loose ball inside her own 22, Winscombe wing Beth Adams decided to run out of defence and pursued by five Exeter defenders, she ran the length of the pitch to score a decisive try. Podpadec was again successful with the conversion.

As the clock ticked down, Exeter’s excellent half-backs combined a second time for an unconverted try to finish the scoring.