Gloucester-Hartpury pull off comeback win over Bristol Bears to defend Allianz Premiership Women's Rugby crown
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ByEurosport
Published 22/06/2024 at 16:19 GMT
There appeared to be a huge upset on the cards on Saturday in Exeter, as Bristol Bears took on Gloucester-Hartpury in the Premiership Women's Rugby final. The Bears raced out of the blocks to take a 17-7 half-time lead, but Gloucester were inspired in the second period as Sarah Beckett and Emma Sing put in standout performances to rally to victory.
Gloucester-Hartpury
Image credit: Getty Images
Gloucester-Hartpury overcame a 10-point deficit at half-time to beat Bristol Bears 36-24 to become Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby champions on Saturday in Exeter.
The defending champions lost just once in the regular season, and were the clear favourites going into the final.
Bristol were beaten five times over the course of the 16-match season, but they promised an upset as they took a 17-7 lead at half-time - only for Gloucester to show their class in the second half.
After more than 20 phases of play, Bristol found room for Courtney Keight to speed down the left wing to open the scoring after 17 minutes.
Eight minutes later, Mo Hunt then put down under the posts for Gloucester after good work from Sarah Beckett and Bethan Lewis, and Emma Sing converted to edge two points clear.
Bristol hit back just after the half-hour mark, when a maul saw Lark Atkin-Davies carry the ball over, and just before half-time, Hannah Botterman had her powerful drive forward rewarded with a converted try, Amber Reed sending the ball between the posts.
Bristol had put together what might well have been their best half of the season just when it counted most.
On 46 minutes, Bethan Lewis had a try denied on a TMO review as Meryl Smith had her arm under the ball to prevent the score. Eight minutes later, Pip Hendy crashed over to cut the deficit to just three, after another Sing conversion, and the comeback looked set when Sing converted her own try after a run from deep just before the hour mark.
The floodgates threatened to open when Mia Venner made it three tries in eight minutes.
Hannah Jones added another with 12 minutes remaining as she seized on a loose ball from her own team-mate to power down the right, though Sing's missed conversion meant the lead was 33-17.
Ella Lovibond added some late drama when she notched her fifth try of the season on 75 minutes, with the conversion taking the Bears to within nine points.
Sing capped an excellent solo performance when she added a penalty on 79 minutes to move to 16 points, shortly before Gloucester were crowned champions.
Player of the match, Gloucester’s Beckett celebrated an “incredible match”, saying: "I enjoyed the second half.
"Thank you to Bristol, it was an incredible match, they put us up against it. We couldn't get the ball first half, but second half we kicked it into the right areas and got it done."
She added: "We just need to go back to being us, we didn't play our way. We showed in the second half, three tries is decent pay out, but we just needed to keep the ball and show what we can do when we have the ball."
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