On Saturday afternoon, at Newforge, after the Schools Interprovincial, Cooke Women entertained the Severn River RFC, touring side, from the shores of Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA. As Cooke contributed a number of players to the Ulster side, they fielded a scratch team, of young players, recently retired players and guests. Even, at that, they started the game with 13 players.
Cooke’s 13 players took the game to Severn River and opened the scoring, after 12 minutes, when Katie Gilmour powered over, for a 5-0 lead.
Gradually numbers wore Cooke down. Sarah Mercado’s spectacular dive over, followed by Charlee Bryan’s conversion gave Severn River a 7-5 lead, on 20 minutes. Three minutes later Casey Hartzell‘s crash ball and Bryan’s conversion, moved Severn River out to 14-5.
Cooke responded when Kirsty Jackson forced her way over after 28 minutes to reduce Severn River’s lead to 14-10. On 34 minutes Brianne Niewinski ran in from deep, in the rain, for a try in the corner and a 19-10 halftime lead.
Bolstered by the arrival of Cindy Cancino, who had starred, at the Ophir ‘7s’ and Caitlin Fisher, who had refereed Ulster U18 Girls v Connacht U18 Girls, in Enniskillen, Cooke set about the Severn River defence. A searing break by Gilmour, saw her dot down under the posts, to bring the score back to 19-15.
Severn Valley responded with another Niewinski try, after 66 minutes, converted by Hartzell, and a 26-15 lead.
Cooke pressure resulted in an Izzy Harris try, on 73 minutes to bring the score back to 20-26.
Severn River had the last say, with an 80th minute try by Katie Marshall and a deserved 31-20 victory. They complete their tour with a game in Mullingar next week.
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