The team's final game of the season was against bottom of the league Leigh, a team who gave a good match at their place earlier in the season. The team were keen to put in a good performance to mark the end of a good season in a strong league and also as a goodbye game for many players leaving us after the match. A biting wind and light snow flurries wouldn't dampen the effort as the home team ran up a big score. Almost straight away RI had Leigh under pressure with a good clearance kick return from Julie Pease finding space for Ruth to run on the inside and score the first points. Within a minute of the restart RI were over again as good running from Jenny Harvey and Liz Gaskell allowed Ruth to take the offload and score a second.
Leigh had come to contest the match and battled back into the game, good phases of forward play pinned RI inside their own 22 for a sustained period. Despite good tackling the visitors managed to crash over from close range and a deserved 7 points. The pendulum swung back to RI with good pressure from the restart allowing RI possession on the 5 metre line, Anna Coombs diving over from short range following a blind side move at the ruck. RI extended the lead to finish the half as Jenny's run across the face of the defensive line drew the space for Ruth to sprint through again.
The second half would see the Leigh side getting frustrated, in particular at a linesman but also at the referee and the RI players. The verbals started following a twisting one handed touchdown from Ruth in the corner, the linesman and several home fans believing the ball was touched-down, the Leigh players didn't believe it (to be fair it all happened very quickly). The controversy galvanised the visitors who drove downfield with new purpose, the drive finished by a powerful run and try from the no 7 from 20 metres out.
Anna Coombs bagged her second try of the day with a lovely bit of pace down the left wing to score in the corner. Ruth wasn't to be caught in the scoring feats though and quickly notched up 3 further tries. The first showing great speed down the wing to score under the posts, the second riding tackles right on the touchline (which really upset the Leigh players who believed she was in touch, they really gave the linesman some grief over the call). The third showing good football skills with a chip over, kick on and then gathering the ball for the touchdown.
The scoreline at 55-14 wasn't really fair on a Leigh side who weren't that bad, they worked hard and caused trouble with the forwards and their strong running number 12. RI's tackling had to be good, to keep the score down to two tries, special credit goes to Katie Croft who seemed to be everywhere today and tackled everything with vigour. Well done Katie on a man-of-the-match performance and well done Ruth on an 8 try game.