September never brings the guarantee of good weather but the warmth of late summer usually holds on for at least the opening weekend of a new rugby season, reports Stafford Burt.

Not so much this past Sunday as  Mansfield women opened up their 24/25 season is miserable conditions that hampered an otherwise entertaining match as the home side defeated Scunthorpe 17-14.

Mansfield were forced to defend for large parts of the game as visitors Scunthorpe enjoyed the lion’s share of possession and territory.

However, with the skies finally clearing during the final quarter, the home team managed to find enough to snatch the hard-fought victory and open their new campaign in the best way.

Head coach Dave Woodcock was honest about the performance and knows there is still work to do, saying: “That was tough today, we’ve got stuff to work on but Scunthorpe beat us in both fixtures last year so I am happy with a victory today.”

The home team really didn’t get off to the best start, conceding a try in the first couple of minutes to immediately see them on the back foot. A successful conversion saw the visitors take the lead, 7-0, with barely enough time for this reporter to put a coat on!

For almost the entirety of the rest of the half, that was as close as anyone got to scoring. A combination of conceding penalties and slippery hands dropping the ball saw Mansfield struggle to gain and build any real momentum. However, while Scunthorpe managed the conditions better, they were still unable to fire on all cylinders, largely due to outstanding Mansfield defence.

There was no doubt that the home defence kept them in the game for the remainder of the first half. They were awesome, forcing turnovers, tackling hard and just being a general nuisance. Nowhere was this exemplified more than with full back Jojo Darby, whose outstanding defence saw her deprive the visitors of two guaranteed tries with textbook scything tackles. This, combined with a mazy run of her own to help set up the field position for her team’s first try, saw her deservedly take the player of the match crown.

Mansfield were able to capitalise of Darby’s aforementioned run and secure multiple phases of possession before Hannah Bretton crashed through the visitor’s defence to get the blue-and-whites on the board. A difficult conversion was missed, but the gap had been closed and the half time score read 7-5 to the visitors.

Most of the second half was much the same as the first. Turgid conditions made the game largely a stalemate as both teams struggled to make too many inroads in their opponent’s 22. The first try of the second half came from the visitors, who pounced on a dropped ball to turn defence into attack, rapidly cover the 80m between them and the try line and add their second try of the game. A successful conversion saw the score read 14-5 to Scunthorpe and it looking like they had control of the game.

But then Mansfield got a bit of good fortune. The rain stopped and the clouds parted. While it never fully got dry, the weather cleared up enough that the momentum shifted and the final 15 minutes largely belonged to the home team. Some successive phases saw Mansfield able to find some footing in the game and apply consistent pressure to the visitors.

Laina Corah was the first beneficiary of this resurgence as she battered through the defensive wall to double her team’s tally. The conversion was missed but with less than 10 minutes left to play, there was just four points in it, 14-10.

The winning score came through the same template as before, successive phases setting up good position and allowing the home team to stretch and challenge the visiting defence. This saw youngster Orla Davies exploit the smallest of gaps in a rapidly-reforming defence and crashing through. A successful conversion by Hannah Blake saw the final score read 17-14 to the home team.

This was a victory that, while on the scoreboard was only won in the final 10 minutes, had needed 60 previous minutes of solid defence to keep a resilient and powerful Scunthorpe team away from the try line. The visitors managed the wet conditions better than the home team and, if they had been able to put away a couple more opportunities, may have been out of reach when the weather cleared up.

The home team fared better in the ‘dry’ conditions and the previously solid defence meant that they were able to close the deficit and ultimately snatch a victory to start their season off on the right foot.