Rugby Union: Littleborough U18s Ladies 27 - 15 Manchester Sirens

Littleborough's U18s Ladies Bowl final

With silverware at stake, Littleborough U18s ladies were left to rue missed chances as Manchester Sirens took the honour of bowl final victors.

In the sunshine at Grove Park, a fabulous first half performance from Littleborough was overshadowed by a dominant second half display from Manchester.

Littleborough took a two score lead early in the first half.

Centre Chloe Boardman made significant territory down the right and as the ball was recycled and moved out to other side, full back Paige Travis broke through the defensive line with a superb running line before offloading on the floor to Summer Harris to charge through under posts.

Littleborough continued to pile pressure on Manchester and were rewarded for their efforts as Emily Hilton scored the second try from a close range drive. 

Manchester registered their first points with an arching run from the inside centre resulting in a try on the right hand side.

A quality offload in the tackle by the Manchester fly half put the outside centre in. Jessica Chadwick was unlucky not to have stopped her from scoring but with the conversion being successfully taken care of, it was Manchester who had the slender lead.

After the break, Littleborough started much like they did in the first, taking the lead once more with an individual try from Boardman. Quick recycling of the ball on half way gave her the space she needed down the blind side to beat four tacklers on the way to the whitewash.

In the heat of the sunshine, possession of the ball became more important the longer the game went on and it was the hosts who made it count.

Constant pressure from Manchester close to the Littleborough's try line resulted in an overlap on the right-hand side as the winger dived over.

As Littleborough looked to regroup and play the game in the oppositionr half, the Manchester winger broke down the right to score her second in quick succession. With a successful conversion to boot, and with the score sitting at 24-12, Littleborough had it all to do.

You could not fault the effort and hard work right to the end as Littleborough managed to stop Manchester from scoring for at least four phases on the line, however, from the resulting five metre scrum, the Manchester number eight picked up from the base of the scrum to dive over and seal the silverware.

A Littleborough spokesperson said: "The young ladies can be hugely proud of their performance and though the victory and bowl were just out of reach, it has been a brilliant journey to the final. One certainly they can look back on with fond memories."