Belfast Harlequins Women’s 1st XV kept up the momentum to secure a bonus point win against a feisty Malahide. The away side struck first blood early on with the No 10 crashing through a confused Quins, but with the conversion missed it was still all to play for.
Quins focused in though and with an opportunistic try from wing Zoe Templeton, were back on level terms. Malahide absorbed a lot of pressure but simple errors in Scrum technique cost them dearly giving away many penalties at the scrum. Some fantastic tackling from 8 Eileen McElroy and 6 Katheryn Hanna however kept the pressure on the visitors at the ruck. Quins dug deep and kept ball well in the middle of the park allowing Ashleigh Baxter to break through the line and with some trademark fancy footwork and a 50m dash between the posts, Quins saw out the 1st Half 12-5 up.
68 Photos Quins Ladies v Malahide Ladies – Click Here –
The second half saw a more confident Quins dominate at the off hemming Malahide back in their own half the the next 20 mins. The pressure told when Nikki Caughey Intercepted 5m from the Malahide line to score and then convert Quins 3rd Try. Shortly afterwards speed and vision from Hooker Jen Goodall, absorbed the defensive line to create an overlap, allowing the offload to Captain Jenna Stewart who made great ground linking up wit eventual try scorer Ashleigh Baxter to bag her brace for the day between the posts.
An unfortunate dead ball line incident robbed Quins of a 5th try but in fairness some excellent pressure from Malahide resulted in a 22 drop. Malahide had a last resurgence putting a quick tap penalty to good use crashing over the line to score but failed to convert again. Malahide kept the pressure on right to the end but Quins saw out the win 26-10.
Quins now prepare for a home game against Cill Dara next Sunday 24rd October, kick off 2.30pm.
