A sunny afternoon saw the Belfast Harlequins Women travel to Carrick for their AIL Division Two North – Round Two clash. After a narrow defeat in Round One, the Quins women were desperate for their first win of the season.
Carrick got the better start with the Quins women simply not firing on all cylinders and making some simple errors early on. Carrick fronted up very well and were rewarded with an early try to centre, Hilary Cawood. Harlequins struck back quickly with Nikki Caughey knocking over a penalty kick. Quins had several opportunities but their handling again let them down but their defence was solid after the early lapse. Just before half time the Quins backs finally found the hands and a break from out-half Nikki Caughey and some excellent teamwork saw Ashleigh Baxter score under the posts. Nikki added the two points to leave the scores 10 – 5 to Quins at half time.
The second half saw Quins pressure the Carrick line with scrum half, Jenna ‘Twinkle’ Stewart almost into the corner. Her hard work was rewarded when flanker and Quins Player of the Match, Emma Boyd, picked up the ball and dove over the line to put Quins up 15 – 5. A late surge by Carrick and silly mistakes by Quins once again put them under pressure on their own line. They conceded several penalties before the Carrick forwards drove over the line taking the score to 15 – 10.
Despite late pressure from both teams the game ended 15 – 10 to the Quins.
