Women’s National Championships East 1 Southwold 12 Bury Foxes 15 This turned out to be an epic match in which neither side was willing to allow the other to dominate for too long, writes Andrew Marshall.

At the start it was the home team forwards who took the game to the visitors. Gradually however, the Foxes started to put their renowned passing and running game together, threatening to score out wide any time soon.

Sinead Collins crossed to give the Foxes the lead at 5-0 but the ladies of Southwold continued to pressurise their visitors into mistake after mistake with positive and aggressive play.

Gradually though the Foxes did start to put together some good play but on every occasion when it looked like the Foxes were about to add to their score, the home team tore up the script. 5-0 was the score at the break.

Soon after the start of the second half the visitors were able to add to their points total when Jaz Clark crossed the line to bring a degree of comfort to the many Bury spectators watching from the sideline, up 10-0.

But it was obvious to most that this contest was far from over and it was no great surprise when Southwold raced downfield to cross the Bury line and close the gap to 10-5 with plenty of time left for more scores before the final whistle.

Indeed, it was to the be the home side who now took charge. Grabbing a wayward Bury kick, they recycled the ball and eventually worked their way into the centre of the field to cross the Bury line under the posts.

With the conversion successful, Southwold now led 12-10 and Bury looked to be on their way to a very rare defeat.

Except for their first league game against league leaders Harwich and Dovercourt way back in September, the Foxes had remained unbeaten for nine matches.

What came next was a demonstration by the Foxes of the same spirit that saw them win those nine games – a refusal to accept defeat, set-back or anything else that could be thrown at them.

It was therefore no great surprise when, after a period of scrappy play between both sides, that back of the day Georgie Palmer managed to create sufficient space to wriggle over the line to score the match-winning try.