Hat-trick for Luxton as Ladies win big

After their away win in the first league game of the season, Newbury used home advantage this week to come away with a 47-0 win against Portsmouth Valkyries in the Women's Championship South West 2, writes Katharine Smith.

A try from Sofia Luxton within the first 5 minutes of the game showed supporters at Monks Lane that the Blues were raring to go from the off.

Anna Krzyzanowska danced past multiple Portsmouth players attempting to tackle the powerful winger, scoring the second try of the game to take the score to Newbury 12, Portsmouth 0.

The Newbury forward pack was once again the stronger of the two teams, getting lower, although having to work much harder due to the opposition regularly causing infringements which slowed play stopping clean ball from the set piece.

Despite gaining possession from various knock-ons, Portsmouth did not manage to gain any ground as the home team’s defensive line forced the ball carrier to run sideways to try and find gaps.

Finding none, they resorted to utilising the boot to gain ground but with Becky Church settling nicely into the fullback position Newbury were straight back in attack, carrying hard and providing quite the show for the supporters.

With more of the same attacking play, Newbury upped the score to 19-0 with a beautiful try from Harris, once again finding gaps in the defence.

Newbury continued to rack up the points with two more tries by Luxton, and a penalty goal kick from Chloe Hunt, moving the score on to 34-0.

A penalty kick aiming for touch didn’t quite reach the side line but with a quick chase from Krzyzanowska, the opposition were stopped in their tracks and Reeves turned the ball over in the ruck, then ploughed through the defence to gain more points for the Blues.

One more beautiful penalty goal kick from Hunt and a try from Church brought the final score to 47- 0.

Next up for unbeaten Newbury is a trip to North Bristol Ladies on October 16.