In sunny conditions with a light breeze Iceni made the quarter finals of the Papa John Cup with a fine display of rugby winning 32-10 against visitors Aylesford Bulls from Kent.

After this well contested game Iceni coaches Graham Seal and Danny Whiteman were in absolute elation. “We were so pleased that the women put into practice all that we have been teaching them in the training sessions.”

The first ten minutes saw the two sides sizing each other up with each of them dominating their set pieces and the backs attacking and defending resolutely.
Then, following a box kick, the Iceni backs quickly attacked and moved the ball to fullback Lucy Philpott who scored a fine try in the corner. Yas Amber was unsuccessful with the conversion so Iceni took a 5 point lead.

A quarter of an hour later after some really competitive play Iceni repeated the same manoeuvre with, this time, winger Jade Baker the scorer. Back came the Bulls trying to charge through the defence but the Iceni to a woman tackled really well to keep them at bay. Following a successful line out the ball was moved swiftly to Yas in the centre who dashed forward into the Bulls’ half and, when the Iceni forwards won an awarded scrum, scrum half Jess Brennan scored an opportunist try in the corner. This put the Colchester side 15-0 ahead at the interval.

The visitors must have had a stern talking to by their coaches at half time because they came out firing after the break and pressed forward into the Iceni’s half being awarded a penalty that their fly half nearly converted but, the ball rebounded off the crossbar and their forwards caught it and fed it left for their winger to score an unconverted try.

In the ensuing play, Iceni flankers Kat Richardson and Katie Gemal caught the eye with the way they gained possession in the rucks and mauls and made progress up the pitch.
One such incursion lead to Colchester being awarded a penalty on Bulls’22 line.
Iceni forwards attacked the corner resulting in prop Beth Haggan touching down for an unconverted try in the corner.

This score seemed to light a touch paper for the hosts and they raised their game moving the ball to the impressive centre Yas, who burst through the defence, ran 50 metres and scored a fine unconverted try putting Iceni in the lead 25-5.

Back came the Bulls and within minutes they got a second score at the Iceni end. 25-10 with all to play for. The Colchester coaches had to make a few substitutions during the second half due to injuries but all the power-ups, as they are known, performed well.
The victory was sealed towards the end of the match when an Iceni attack lead by Katie
moved the ball to the ever-reliable Yas on the halfway line and she sprinted through to touch down her second try which she converted making the winning score of this magnifcent spectacle 32-10 ,which was even more incredible as the Bulls had been undefeated this season.

The Player of the Match Award sponsored by Tru-7 went to Katie Gemal and the Under the Radar Award went to substitute Megan Davies for their excellent efforts.