Wales U19’s Girls Undefeated

The first game on Monday saw captain Marie Bancroft lead from the front with support from fellow forward Ruth Copeland. Half back pairing Gemma Allen and Jessica Kidley combined well with Kidley in the unfamiliar position of outside half scoring two tries for the Welsh side. Full back Ellen Evans excelled on her international debut adding further points. Tries from Gemma Allen, Eirlys Lougher, Ruth Copeland, Becky Dando, Vicky McGarth, Christine Thompson and Sam Mason with three conversions from Centre, Paula Mullen completed a huge victory for the Welsh U19’s.
There were several squad changes in the second test in their preparation for the England game on the 14th April. Wales were again in the driving seat and with 15 minutes played, Wales’ Tight head prop Ruth Copeland scored from a short ball in the lineout.
Wales displayed some excellent passing play and used the space out wide allowing Stacy Hardie to break up the wing supported by Full Back Vicki McGrath who scored in the corner. The pacy Inside Centre Paula Mullen played some excellent rugby chasing every high ball and putting pressure on the Swedish defence. Moments later, Outside Centre Ffion Jones outpaced the cover defence to score. Sweden restarted and, for the first time in the game, put Wales under pressure. Wales defended well and made some excellent tackles and Sweden settled for three points when Wales were penalised for offside.
Blaenau Gwent player, Kim Boaler came on at Half time and immediately made a superb run up the centre of the pitch. Scrum Half, Becky Davies picked up the ball from the base of the ruck and scored bringing the score to 20-3.
The Swedish prop made a great run and looked like scoring but solid tackling by Wales turned the ball over and the hosts were once again in the Swedish 22. The Welsh Forwards won the Swedish lineout ball and great passing and overlapping through the Welsh backs allowed Vicki McGrath to score her second. The final score was 25-3. The selectors will now have a difficult job of deciding upon the 22
players to travel to Chester next weekend.
Captain Marie Bancroft commented, “I am very pleased with both our performances. We have a lot of young girls in the squad many of whom have graduated through the U16’s game, which is encouraging. These two games against Sweden were our first as a team and overall we played very well. The second game was much more physical than the first, which is good preparation for our biggest test – England U19’s, next weekend in Chester.”