The day after their male counterparts had been blown away by the Quins in the Gallagher Premiership, the women underlined their title ambitions with a stunning 24-5 win that extended their unbeaten start to the season to five games.
Given they had lost their three previous games against Quins by massive margins – 62-7, 61-17, 47-0 – it was a result that showed just how far they have developed under new head coach Dave Ward. Ten of his squad have been named by Wales for the autumn internationals and seven of them started at The Stoop.
One of them, lock Natalia John picked up a very early yellow card, but that didn’t stop the Bears from taking the lead. Welsh flanker Alisha Butchers made a brilliant break down the blindside to carry to the edge of the Quins 22 and then released Courtney Keight on the left wing.
The Welsh flyer, who recently scored five tries in one game, showed pace and then power to reach the line for the opening score. The home side quickly replied with a try from Emily Robinson and it was still tight at the break at 5-5.
But the second half belonged to the Bears as they not only took the lead, but powered on to score three more tries to make a grand statement by taking a bonus-point at the home of the reigning champions.
“It was absolutely brilliant and we are all ecstatic. We only won four games in the whole of last season and now we’ve won five in a row so we’ve already done better,” said Joyce.
“It was so much fun to be out there. We made a lot of mistakes, but so did Quins, and scoring two tries in the opening 15 minutes of the second half was the turning point for us.
“We expected to win, but taking the full five points is probably something we didn’t expect coing to Quins. A five point win was perfect.
“I’m 26 now, so I’m getting on, but I love playing rugby so what better way to spend your birthday. This is such a nice environment to be involved with I just want to be with this team.
“Coming into this season we wouldn’t have believed or expected to be where we are. But after our first game against Exeter we’ve to ourselves and the rest of the Premiership what we can do.”
That early blitz in the second half included tries from the Bears’ two Team GB sevens stars, Grace Crompton and Joyce. An audacious Sarah Bern break and dummy paved the way for Crompton to score and then a blindside snipe from Wales scrum half Keira Bevan allowed Joyce to do what she does best and race to the posts from half-way having turned the home defence inside out.
After a scoreless first half the game at Loughborough sparked into life with the Lightning beaten 18-14 in the end by visiting Worcester Warriors. Wales wing Lisa Neumann touched down the bonus-point try for Sale Sharks’ in their 31-0 win at DMP Durham Sharks.
That provided them with their first points of the campaign and player of the match was Teleri Wyn Davies, who was at the heart of a strong forward effort from the visitors.
“It has been a hard few weeks for us at the start of the season. We put in a good performance the previous week and so it is amazing to get our first win. We’ve been working really hard as a pack and our scrum was good and our line-out is improving.” said Davies.
Saracens retained their unbeaten tag as they bagged a bonus-point in their 32-19 home win over Exeter Chiefs. Despite going behind to an early try the home side hit back to lead 22-7 at the break before going on to score four tries.
Back row dynamo Bethan Lewis was among the Gloucester-Hartpury try scorers in their 34-25 defeat at Wasps in a game that was part of a double-header at the CBS Arena in Coventry with the Gallagher Premiership clash between Wasps and Northampton Saints.
Lewis was one of five Welsh players in the Gloucester-Hartpury starting XV, along with Kerin Lake, Llechu George, Cara Hope and Cerys Hale, while Robyn Wilkins came off the bench in the second half.
There is now a break in the Premier15s league action until 27 November.
