Tigers can’t keep pace with battling Trailfinders

By JAMES RILEY

Leicester ………14pts

Tries: McGhie 32, Brody 41

Conversions: Jones 33, 42

Trailfinders ….29pts

Tries: Crake 14, 36; Schell 19, Dow 29 Conversions: Schell 15, 19, 37

Penalties: Schell 61

CANADA inter national Julia Schell scored 14 points as Trailfinders won the battle of the two new sides in the Women's Premiership.

Leicester announced the signing of crosscode Wales scrumhalf Eloise Hayward from Loughborough Lightning earlier in the day and look to need further reinforcements to keep pace with the rest of the division.

Trailfinders blew Tigers away in a dominant first half in which they secured their fourtry bonus point.

Beneath the glow of the Friday night lights at Welford Road, Leicester were brought down to earth by a sublime Trailfinders performance full of physicality and attacking flair.

Trailfinders director of rugby Giselle Mather said: “This is a fantastic place to come and I'm delighted with the five points. We had been on a break for three weeks and made a few tweaks to defence and attack, and I think we executed those well. The tempo we played with in the first half was fantastic.”

An offload gone array allowed Trailfinders to capitalise as prop Liz Crake burrowed over from short range. They had their second in a flash as Ellie Green had a plethora of strike runners to pick from and chose Vicky Laflin, who picked out player of the match Schell for her try.

It was three before the half hour mark as England inter national Abby Dow had both the speed and elite finishing ability to pull off an immense jumping touchdown in the farright corner.

Leicester hit back through Elis Martin but Crake grabbed her second before half-time capitalising off a slick line out move.

Tigers started the second half well with Tahlia Brody scoring a converted try but deadeye kicker Schell knocked over a penalty to end any hope of a Tigers revival.

Head coach Tom Hudson was disappointed at the loss after his side appeared to have turned a corner having secured two wins in three games.

He said: “I don't know what went wrong. We look tired. We lost the battle of enthusiasm, battle of contact, precision, we lost every battle bar the first part of the second half.

“We were desperate to give this crowd a home win. Girls have played a lot of minutes and I'll have a look at our programme to see if we have pushed them a bit too far.”