Sidmouth Under-15s played their part in an entertaining day’s ‘festival of girls’ rugby’ hosted by Sidmouth RFC at Sidbury.

The Sidmouth girls faced Paignton Barbarians, who scored three tries with one conversion, answered by Sidmouth with two tries and a conversion for a half-time score of 17-12 in favour of the visitors.

In the second half Sidmouth dug deep and, against what was a more physical opposition, and, with a mixture of disciplined – and determined – defending and some fine running, found themselves in a 26-22 lead.

Back came Paignton and they edged into a 34-26 lead with just minutes to go.

In one final push Sidmouth were denied a last-gasp try by a wonderful last-ditch tackle!

Sidmouth team members Elly Jane Waddel, Nyah Austin, Annabelle Emmott, Lily Baker, Abi Price, Esme Bagwell, Cleo Turley and Emily Cozens showed real resilience with their general play and defending. Abbie French showed real promise with her ball-winning efforts in the scrum, Araminta May was a constant thorn in the opposition’s side and Rebecca Fallows showed, especially under pressure, just why she has been called up to the Devon girls’ Under-15 side.

In terms of the Sidmouth try scorers, they were Hatty Tremlett, Lucy Tanner and Kaitland, while Lucy Tanner also slotted three conversions.