WELLINGTON Vixens played their second and final pre-season friendly away to Sherborne Ladies on Sunday - and pulled off a splendid 44-15 victory.
From the first whistle the Vixens’ pack got into its stride and made some impressive drives, setting up the backs to ply their trade.
From a play starting on halfway with forwards and backs combining the ball went to No8 and captain Taylor Wetherall who drove over wide of the posts. The extras were missed.
Vixens continued to dominate a competitive and physical Sherborne side who were unlucky not to score were it not for some sterling defensive play.
Next to score for the Vixens was fullback Maxine Pontin who received the ball just inside the Sherborne half and made a mazy run to score close to the posts, the extras added by Wetherall.
Sherborne were working hard putting some good moves together but some strong defence thwarted a number of moves, from that defence the ball was turned over and with great running interplay by the Vixens the ball went to fly half Brianna Whelan who drove over for the Vixens’ third, the extras were missed.
After a sustained period of pressure Sherborne were awarded a penalty five metres from the Wellington line, their big pack rumbled over to score wide out.
After another period of pressure saw second row Amy Lemon make one of her trademark bulldozering runs to score the Vixens fourth try, the extras were missed.
Sherborne continued to apply their own pressure and from a penalty awarded five metres from the Wellington line the initial Sherborne drive was impressively halted by the Vixens only for the Sherborne second row to dive low and touch down on the line. The extras were missed.
With half time fast approaching the ball was worked along the back line and centre Violet Coppin sprinted in from thirty metres out to touch down just wide of the post, the extras were added by Wetherall. Wellington led 29-10 at half time.
Both teams made a number of changes with Sherborne bolstering their pack with a number of Yeovil players which gave the Vixens a stern test defensively.
The Vixens opened the scoring with a well worked move seeing centre Zoe Wadham weave through a number of tackles to score.
The next to score was from a superb passage of play seeing Lara Grabham-Whites, link up with Amy Lemon and Hooker Ceinwyn Lock who darted in to score wide of the posts.
Sherborne then struck back to score an unconverted try from some driving play by their strong forwards. The last play of the game saw No8 Taylor Wetherall go over for her second try of the game, the extras were missed.
Player of the match: Natalie Anderson.
HUGH BARRETT