Trailfinders Women beat Leicester Tigers 36-17 in a scrappy affair away at Welford Road in PWR Round 5 on Sunday (3 November 2024).
A brace from Emma Taylor, along with tries from Chloe Rollie, Rosie Inman, Julia Schell and Caity Mattinson, secured Trailfinders a bounce-back win following their narrow loss to Exeter Chiefs last week.
The result leaves Trailfinders Women 6th in the PWR table, five points outside the playoff spots, with a game in hand on Harlequins in 4th.
Trailfinders started perfectly at Welford Road, which has been the theme so far this season, having scored within the first five minutes in all of their first four games.
The opener came from Rollie, who stepped past two Tigers defenders to streak away over the line.
Despite the early try, Tigers were undeterred and grabbed the momentum, working their way up the field, although unable to score as Trailfinders turned over Tigers lineout ball.
Inman then widened the gap as another wayward Leicester lineout was pounced on by Tyson Beukeboom, passing to the winger who then finished with aplomb.
Tigers then replied via Francesca McGhie, who broke down the left wing and reached her own kick behind to dot down.
The rest of the first half was characterised by inaccuracy. Both sides failed to keep the ball off the floor for large swathes of the final 15 minutes, and neither team could add to the scoreboard.
Half Time: Leicester Tigers 5-10 Trailfinders Women
Leicester came out of the changing rooms the better of the two teams. Julia Omokhuale crashed over from short range to give the hosts the lead following Claire Gallagher’s conversion.
Tigers stayed on top, and Trailfinders continued to be penalised at the breakdown and the scrum. Disaster followed as Cassandra Tuffnail, having just replaced Sara Seye, was yellow-carded for repetitive scrum penalties against the team.
Strangely, however, this was seemingly the spark the visitors needed to get back in the game.
Rollie intercepted a Tigers wide pass that looked for all money to be creating a try and flew away but was caught by McGhie running back to cover. Rollie then found Schell with a switchball, who walked under the sticks to give Trailfinders the lead back.
A wonder try followed from Trailfinders. Back to their Globetrotting best, they produced a sequence of beautiful offloads that allowed Mattinson to slide untouched over the whitewash.
The visitors looked determined to press on and continued to pin Leicester deep in their territory.
Taylor was next to add to the advantage, barrelling through the Tigers defence from short range.
McGhie then scored again to give Tigers fans some hope late on, but Taylor’s second from short range would end any hope of the hosts taking any points from the contest.
As a result, Trailfinders took all five points and look to be improving as they host the champions Gloucester-Hartpury at TFSC next week.
Full Time: Leicester Tigers 17-36 Trailfinders Women
Tries:
Trailfinders Women
Rollie (3), Inman (19), Schell (58), Mattinson (60), Taylor (66, 77)
Leicester Tigers
McGhie (25, 75), Omokhuale (47)
Conversions:
Trailfinders Women
Taylor (59, 67, 78)
Leicester Tigers
Gallagher (47)
Yellow Cards:
Trailfinders Women
Tuffnail (56)
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