CHIPPING Sodbury hosted the biggest game of the year against St Mary’s Old Boys but went down to a 24-14 defeat.

St Mary’s were first to find their composure and put the first points on the board with a penalty in front of the posts.

Try as they might, Sodbury were unable to gain the momentum they needed to break the defence.

And they gave Mary’s far too much room in attack and the ladies worked tirelessly with countless tackles to hold out strong running from the opposition.

Unusually for Sodbury, the scrums were not going their way and despite a relentless wall of defence, Mary’s used runners at pace to punch holes in the back line and managed to bag a converted try to leave the home team 10 points down approaching half time.

Despite St Mary’s being a player down after a yellow card, the home team were unable to utilise their advantage.

It was becoming evident that an injury riddled Chipping Sodbury had been struggling to cope against the well-drilled side but a passionate half-time talk seemed to give the ladies the boost that they needed.

Having given Mary’s too much respect in the first 35mins, they hit back.

Jodie Leonard, stepping in at fly-half, did well to keep her composure but the ball was often spoiled by rush defence and handling out to the backs was inconsistent meaning the forwards had to work incredibly hard up the middle being stopped in their tracks.

Centre Alanna Sealey Grant swapped with Leonard which saw the ball quickly find its way into the hands of winger Katie Lane who powered half the length of the pitch leaving the defence trailing to score under the posts – converted by Michelle Deverill.

With only three points in it, spirits on the pitch lifted and Sodbury began to fight back.

Lane got her second, converted once again by Michelle Deverill, St Mary’s fought back to win.