Second league game of the season and the first home match for the RI ladies against Altrincham Kersal, a team RI had never played before. RI kicked off but found themselves on the back foot early against a big and sadly also fast team. Altrincham started to make some good probing runs and the pressure told when they scored from close range with a criminally big overlap. Altrincham quickly scored again as their speedy fullback made a good break and was well supported when she was caught.
RI had some good spells of pressure and a good blind side move saw Ruth Laybourne break clear from half way to score near the posts, unfortunately Ruth’s conversion bounced out off the crossbar. RI then won a scrum against the head and another blindside play saw Ruth outpace the defence to score again. 10-21 and it looked like RI could make a game of it after the difficult start.
RI didn’t score again but Altrincham kept up their scoring feats for the rest of the game to lead to a 10-69 defeat. RI clearly struggled with the pace and power of the Altrincham side but some good touches of play from Ruth, Laura Nellist, Jess Frith and Su Walker were encouraging.