Since the last update, the ladies have had a couple of losses, postponed matches but also a hard earned Christmas break. The losses were hard fought games away to Darlington and Sefton as well as at home to top of the league, Sheffield. This did not stop the ladies from earning themselves a few well worked tries, scored by Hattie Gaunt, Amber Smith and Jane Wells. The Sunderland home game was postponed due to poor light and the 25th Reunion match which our old girls were looking forward to, was also postponed but due to frozen pitches! With Christmas just around the corner, the ladies were looking forward to some well-deserved time off. 

The first weekend after the New Year saw the ladies travel away to Sunderland, the first time they had played the flames this season. It was a fiercely contested match with both teams doing some heavy defending. Chrissie Leahy powered her way through the Sunderland defence to score 2 tries with Hattie Gaunt skipping around their defence with ease for her try of the match. Unfortunately, Sunderland over powered Manchester a few times to clinch the game by 22-19.

The next weekend saw another postponed match vs Birkenhead at home due to waterlogged pitches. However, Carlisle away was the weekend after that which, considering last years floods, went ahead as planned. As per the previous fixture Carlisle unfortunately did not bring a full squad but throughout the game they never gave in and gave Manchester a tough game. Tries from Hattie Gaunt, Jane Wells, Hannah Goddard, Mel Dalrymple, Sophie Wareing and Suzi Hobday ensured that Manchester secured their first away win of the season with a score of 55-12.

Manchester Ladies have also recently held their Inner Warrior session as part of a campaign by the RFU which has seen two new ladies join the squad. The ladies are continually recruiting and so anyone is welcome to join training from 7pm every Tuesday. Manchester ladies are home to Birkenhead on 5th February with games against Darlington, Kendal, Sunderland and Preston to follow with the last game of the season on the 26th March.