This Saturday saw the final Tyrrells Premier 15s play-off round take place at Twickenham Stoop. Harlequins Ladies hosted Wasps FC Ladies in a hard-fought battle ending with a 22-7 victory to the hosts to see them through to finals. Jess Wooden, Stacey White and Deborah McCormack all crossed the whitewash for Harlequins and Danielle Waterman danced her way through to earn Wasps the points.

An early swipe from scrum half Sammy Wong made for a promising start to the game for the swarm who for the first 20 minutes of play were ruthless in denying Harlequins of metres and forcing errors to maintain possession. Twenty minutes in, Dow found an opportunity on the wing and went for the chip and chase only narrowly pipped to the mark by Harlequins backs. The score board was left untouched until minute 30 when, after fighting hard to pick a hole in Wasps defence, Harlequins Stacey White found her way over the line. Just 8 minutes later, they added to their score. From a LO catch and drive, the ball found the hands of fullback Jess Wooden who took the score to 10-0 just before half time.

10 points down, or 16 with aggregate scoring, Wasps came back into the second half ready to sting. However, it was Harlequins who opened the second half and scored after stealing a Wasps line out ball, their no. 7 McCormack sealing the deal and Ellie Green with the extras. And again 10 minutes later, Harlequins find front foot ball to break Wasps’ defence and their fullback, Wooden, gets her second to take the score to 22-0.

In retaliation, Wasps found fire in attack in the form of Liz Crake who made a 50m break to take Wasps into Harlequins 22, unfortunately just caught by winger Holly Myers. But minutes later, with Wasps back in possession, Danielle Waterman did what she does best to dance her way over the line to put Wasps’ first points on the board, Hannah Edwards providing the extras.

With 20 minutes left of the game, Wasps search for another, with the likes of Megan Horwood punishing Harlequins at the break down to take back possession and Wasps’ backs searching for metres to play with.

The score remained at 22-7 and saw Harlequins take the place in the final. A tough battle for the black and gold army but speaking with Captain Kate Alder, a performance they will remember and take with them into next season.

“We had to work incredibly hard this whole season and to have Harlequins back to back we knew was a real challenge. Big hits and strong carries were plentiful! Right across the board we can say we have done ourselves proud and wish Harlequins the best of luck in the final”

As the season for the 1XV draws to a close, we would like to make a special mention to Sammy Wong, Amy Cokayne and Hannah Edwards who have all shown true determination, skill and commitment over the past season and without whom we would not be sitting third in the table. We wish you the best of luck over the next year in various parts of the country and the world and hope to see you back in black and gold very soon!