UKAF women suffer defeat against Ealing Trailfinders in Remembrance match
The UK Armed Forces women's rugby team have suffered a 41-29 defeat to an Ealing Trailfinders A team in a spirited and closely contested Remembrance match in Portsmouth.
On a bitterly cold yet sunny afternoon, the Remembrance game was marked by a two-minute silence and a bugle call before kick-off.
From the very beginning, the Trailfinders laid down the gauntlet with a commanding 12-0 lead within the first 15 minutes, perhaps sending an early message to their UKAF opponents.
The Trailfinder's blistering pace wasn't going to deter UKAF though, and their breakthrough came with full-back and UKAF debutant Leading Hand Jasmine Abel of the Royal Navy, who timed her run brilliantly to slice through the Trailfinder's defence to score UKAF's opening try.
The Army's Lance Corporal Courtney Pursglove added the extras to bump UKAF's score to 12-7.
The visitors hit back quickly however with another try to bring the score up to 7-19 at half time.
In the second half, UKAF returned to the field of play motivated to put the challenge to the London-based outfit and their comeback began with the Army's Corporal Sophie Benavant's superb run to crash over the line for UKAF's second try of the game.
LCpl Pursglove's conversion made it 14-19, and a shift in momentum was evident in this stage of the game.
A third try by skipper Staff Sergeant Jade Mullen and then another by Sapper Lauren Brooks saw the UKAF team take the lead by 29-24.
With the clock ticking down to full time, the Trailfinders refused to give up and ran in two tries in the dying minutes of the game.
Their efforts saw them seal a 41-29 victory over the UKAF team who proved their abilities under pressure ahead of next year's International Defence Rugby Competition (IDRC) which is set to take place in the UK alongside the Women's Rugby World Cup.
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