REPORT | Saracens Women 105-0 Worcester Valkyries

Worcester Valkyries were defeated 105-0 by Saracens Women in a frustrating Tyrrells Premier 15s Round 12 meeting at Allianz Park on Saturday.

Going up against the league leaders, Valkyries were unable to stop Saracens from maintaining their winning streak of 12 games for the season.

Winger Emma Uren scored on four occasions as Bryony Cleall (3), Poppy Cleall (2), Marlie Packer (2), Helena Rowland (2), Cara Wardle (2), Sonia Green and Lotte Clapp also went on to score.

Valkyries did manage to put together some positive passages of play, but just weren’t enough for an unbeaten Saracens team.

Things didn’t get off to the best of starts as Sarries fly-half Rowland capitalised on a Valkyries knock-on to open the scoring in the opening minute of the game.

It didn’t take the home side too long to add their second try as Cleall scored under the posts.

Valkyries responded well afterwards as they drove up the pitch managing to creep into the Saracens half, but handling errors allowed the home side to pin Valkyries back to their 22.

Saracens took advantage of the territory and following a scrum, they moved the ball wide to Uren who scored in the corner.

Either side of the 20 minute-mark the Cleall sisters added a couple more scores for the hosts as good forward play saw them crash over from close range.

Two more quickfire tries came before the half-hour-mark as Green found a gap in the Valkyries defence before touching down under the posts. Sarries then showed their technical quality with a very quick passing move which was executed by Wardle in the corner.

Valkyries tried to get back into the game near the end of the first-half, but errors allowed the home side to stretch their lead.

After winning a scrum in midfield, Saracens spread the ball to Uren whose pace took her over the tryline. Bryony Cleall then ended the scoring for the first-half by driving over a couple of phases after a lineout.

Shortly after the break Bryony Cleall completed her hat-trick but that went on to spark a promising reaction from Valkyries.

The next 20 minutes saw Valkyries battle up the pitch and show some dangerous signs by going through the phases and making some breaks, but they weren’t able to convert, and conceded another try from Clapp on the counter-attack.

Saracens regained their dominance just after the hour-mark through Uren’s third try of the day which came from the hosts winning the ball in their own 22 during Valkyries’ best spell of the game.

As a result of Valkyries tiring towards the end of the game, Saracens heaped on the misery in the last 15 minutes with tries from Wardle, Rowland and two from Packer before Uren’s fourth try signalled the end of the game.

Valkyries’ next fixture sees a return to Sixways against Richmond Women on Saturday 20 January (kick-off 2pm).

Valkyries | 15 Brooke Clarke, 14 Lia Gingell 13 Megan Varley, 12 Carys Cox, 11 Nikita Frere, 10 Rebecca Scholes (Barton 71), 9 Eloise Hayward (McFarland 71); 1 Akina Gondwe (Phillips 67), 2 Lark Davies(C) (Johnson 67m), 3 Lauren Leatherland (English 51), 4 Ruth Black, 5 Liz Shermer (Richards 56), 6 Cara Brincat, 7 Charlie Wilcock (Thomas 56), 8 Daisy French

Replacements | 16 Sophie Johnson, 17 Nat English, 18 Katie Phillips, 19 Laura Thomas, 20 Charlotte McFarland, 21 Joanna Richards, 22 Chloe-May Barton

Timeline
01m | Rowland try 5-0
06m | P Cleall try 10-0
07m | Rowland con 12-0
13m | Uren try 17 -0
17m | P Cleall try 22-0
22m | B Cleall try 27-0
24m | Green try 32-0
25m | Rowland con 34-0
27m | Wardle try 39-0
30m | Uren try 44-0
31m | Rowland con 46-0
35m | B Cleall try 51-0
36m | Rowland con 53-0
43m | B Cleall try 58-0
50m | Clapp try 63-0
51m | Rowland con 65-0
63m | Uren try 70-0
66m | Wardle try 75-0
67m | Rowland con 77-0
70m | Rowland try 82-0
71m | Rowland con 84-0
74m | Packer try 89-0
75m | Rowland con 91-0
77m | Packer try 96-0
78m | Rowland con 98-0
80m | Uren try 103-0
80m | Rowland con 105-0