In 2013, Workington Zebra Finches were born with just five women in their first training session at The Ellis, writes John Hastings.
Ten years on, 22 women wrote their names in Workington sporting history on the hallowed turf of Twickenham as they won the RFU Women’s Community Plate.
They earned a 27-22 victory against Avonmouth Claires, following 94 nerve shredding minutes of a pulsating final that was a superb advertisement for women’s rugby.
Workington were supremely confident from the second they emerged from the tunnel before kick-off as any signs of fatigue after that long journey to Twickenham were long extinguished.
They proved it straight from the opening whistle as within a minute, Nicole Stewart went on a solo run but was overcome by a swathe of Avonmouth players about 10 yards from the try line.
With a couple of hard-hitting challenges on their West Country opponents, Workington had well and truly set a marker for their intentions and after 12 minutes they broke the deadlock.
Juliet Porter offloaded the ball to Hannah Thornbery, who raced into the corner for a well taken try that Stewart effortlessly converted.
Avonmouth were visibly stung by this and wasted no time in searching for a swift response. In fact it only took them four minutes as Natasha Williams exploited uncharacteristic slack Finches marking to slice through to score an unconverted try.
A short period of containment then ensued as both sides cancelled each other out with doughty scrummaging and excellent tackling – especially from the Finches captain Lottie Cammack and the returning Beth Adams, playing her first game after an injury-plagued four months.
Ten minutes from half time, Avonmouth came dangerously close to taking the lead when their powerful scrummaging pushed Workington to the tryline, only for the Finches to find one more drop of energy to steal the ball inches from the whitewash.
It looked as though Workington were going to close out the first half with their narrow lead still intact – however, Avonmouth struck a hammer blow with seconds remaining to take the lead for the first time.
A series of perfect line-outs ended with Martha Morton crashing over for their second try, which again went unconverted before the whistle went for half-time.
Workington shrugged off that setback once the second half began as they again delivered probing and grafting surges into Claires territory and on 45 minuites got their reward.
They reclaimed the lead when a long, high punt yielded an awkward bounce that flummoxed the defence and was gleefully snatched by Stephanie Ratcliffe, who quickly found Cammack to offload the ball before the captain resisted the urge of the ensuing melee to thrust herself over the line in that signature way of hers.
Once again, Stewart was on hand to deliver another smooth conversion.
That lead only lasted five minutes as Avonmouth stepped up a gear from the restart and their trademark pace again was responsible as they tormented the Finches with a series of menacing inroads in their half.
They applied the coup de grace with a masterful pass and move attack that saw Issy Smith break away unopposed to score the team’s third try of the afternoon and it was third time lucky for Chloe Morgan with the conversion.
Workington pressed further and with Cammack, Stewart and Donald all working extremely hard, created potential chances but were undone by an unholy alliance of handling errors and the ever-present wall of Black and Red Avonmouth shirts.
Suddenly, Avonmouth reclaimed the advantage and on 62 minutes after one failed scoring chance, won back the ball from a turnover and instigated another onslaught that ended with Hayley Coachafer skipping through the flatfooted backline to dart in for another try that increased their lead to eight points at 22-14, with another missed conversion.
By this time, most teams would have started to wilt under pressure – not Workington and certainly not at Twickenham of all places. On 65 minutes, the deficit was reduced to five points when Stewart calmly stroked home a penalty and the stage was set for a possible grandstand finish.
The atmosphere in Twickenham was tremendous, despite the small crowd. The 300 Avonmouth supporters were in good voice throughout the game, but the 60 or so fans from Workington made their voices heard and more, acting as 16th woman to provide encouragement to the Finches.
This was clearly acknowledged on the pitch and Jen Morton, one of the watergirls, deserves top marks for whipping up the supporters into a good natured frenzy.
Another spell of containment followed, but only briefly, and then with five minutes to go Workington went for broke with one more attacking surge into the Avonmouth half.
Only last ditch tackling prevented both Donald and Cammack from scoring but crucially the Finches kept possession and with literally seconds to go they shattered through the cordon as Donald charged over to make the scores level and set up a chance for Stewart to win the game.
Sadly her conversion attempt fell painfully short and with that it was full time on what had been a tremendous and intense 80 minutes.
Extra time – seven minutes each way – would decide where the Plate was going and once again it was Workington who were the team most likely to score from kick-off as they applied further pressure on Avonmouth.
Three minutes into extra time Donald polished off yet another devastating attack to go over in the corner for her second try of the match. Stewart was close but not accurate enough with her conversion attempt.
Avonmouth were not giving up without a fight however and they still managed a couple of breaks into Finches territory but couldn’t find a way through Workington’s no-nonsense wall of orange and it remained 27-22 at half-time in extra-time.
Seven minutes now stood between Workington and a first taste of silverware, but Avonmouth were just as eager to snatch victory and they began the second period with frequent surges.
However the West Cumbrians kept their concentration and every challenge was delivered both uncompromisingly and efficiently – finally winning the ball, which they proceeded to boot deep into their opposition’s half before grinding them down with textbook scrummaging.
Finally, after 94 tough but fascinating minutes, the full-time whistle heralded screams of undiluted and joyful delight from the Workington faithful, who despite their low number had actually outshouted the Avonmouth congregation – who had been subdued towards the end, probably sensing that the game was up.
Meanwhile, tears were flowing from many Finches players as the feeling of what had just happened began to sink in and the victory was dedicated in memory of Nicola Wilson (ex-player) and Sue Bird (ex-player and coach) both of whom will have been roaring them on somewhere up there.
Despite falling short on the day, Avonmouth deserve applause for playing their part in what was a magnificent final and they can return to Bristol with pride intact.
Lottie Cammack and her victorious Finches proudly strolled up the Twickenham steps to receive their winners medals and the Community Plate from former England legend Sarah Hunter – the roar when Lottie raised aloft the plate will be remembered by all who were there for many years to come.
Credit goes out to each and every member of the Workington squad giving the performance of their lives with every player on top form, either from kick off or off the bench, and this will not only galvanise them to potentially more success over the next few years but also inspire many young girls in Workington to take up Rugby Union and make their way to The Ellis.
And behind these great women is a great man – Chris Davidson got every decision right at Twickenham and he deserves his place in history as the Finches’ first trophy winning head coach.
It is important to remember previous coaches Colin McKay, Kevin O’Neil and the late Sue Bird – all of whom, in their time, laid strong foundations leading to this momentous occasion.
Congratulations ladies – Take a bow.
