Eighty minutes lie between Workington Zebra Finches and a semi-final following their tough, but convincing, 17-5 victory at The Ellis against Penrith Panthers in the quarter final of the RFU Women’s Junior Plate, writes John Hastings.
With honours even in their two league encounters, this really was winner takes all and the Finches were determined to avenge their home defeat by the Panthers three weeks ago.
For the opening 15 minutes or so it was pretty much even, with both sides dominating midfield but with no serious scoring attempts.
Then on 17 minutes, Hannah Thornbery bolted clear in her own half to deliver a scorching solo run and although brought down just short of the try line she offloaded the ball which eventually found Megan Donald, who wasted no time in going over for the opening try.
Penrith recovered quickly and from the restart dominated Finches territory with runs and passes that stretched them to breaking point and on 25 minutes they hit the jackpot by drawing level with a well taken try in the corner by Ella Purdy.
Owing to the windy conditions, conversion attempts by both sides were delivered unsuccessfully.
The match suddenly stopped on the half hour mark when one of the Penrith players suffered a serious injury and had to be carefully stretchered off the pitch – and following this lengthy stoppage the referee decided to call half-time.
Within a minute of the second half, Workington regained the lead when their first attacking surge ended with another burst of pace from Thornbery to leave Penrith trailing as she stormed in for another unconverted.
It got even better for the Finches four minutes later when another well-crafted attack saw Nicole Stewart outfox the Panthers defence before offloading to an unmarked Elsa Whelan, who gleefully sainted home to score under the posts to set up an easy conversion by Stewart – the first successful one of the afternoon.
Penrith recovered and managed to finally regain possession but could not make the most of it as the iron-clad Finches defence smothered them at every turn. Clearly lessons had been learned following the visitors’ narrow win at The Ellis last month.
Having nullified the gathering storm, Workington reclaimed control in the final 15 minutes with a sequence of fiercely contested line-outs and scrummaging that should have seen them finish off the match with at least another try.
To Penrith’s credit they withstood the immense pressure even though time was against them to produce any chance of an unlikely comeback themselves.
On the final whistle, the screams of joy from the Finches was matched by loud cheers and applause by the home supporters – the reality of reaching a maiden national semi-final after ten years was beginning to sink in.
Every Finches player delivered on the pitch – especially Hannah Thornbery, who was named Player Of The Match by both sides, as well as Nicole Stewart and Steph Radcliffe for their virtually telepathic half-back partnership.
Amber Sullivan was named Back of the Match for Penrith with Lauren Strand named Forward of the Match.
The Finches return to The Ellis on Sunday March 5 for their semi-final against Lichfield and based on this brilliant all-round performance – allied to a vociferous home crowd – they will be confident of writing another chapter in their history.
