Saracens 28-33 Newcastle town

Laura Lyth Newcastle Captain was delighted with her team’s performance over high flying Saracens.

Lyth said ‘We really wanted to go into the game with a positive plan as Saracens are such a good strong team which is why they have been at the top of the league for most of the season. We put a really strong tactical plan together before the game and I am delighted that the team stuck to it and it paid off with a great win’

Newcastle started the first quarter with some excellent shooting from Jo Barnett and Laura Lyth who were both on excellent form. Strong pressure from the Saracens defensive pairing was absorbed as Newcastle put in over 80% of their shots. At the opposite end Rachel Deakin, player of the match, and Julie Unwin were making life really hard for the Saracens shooters and were picking up any lost shoots and with good linking play to Rachel Redman and Laura Jones the Newcastle team stretched out to an 11 goal lead. At half time Lyth made some changes bringing on Sarah Sherwin for Jones and Ester Rutherford for wing defence Kirsty Jefferies.

Newcastle played some calm determined play to manage to hold off a Saracens resurgence during the last quarter and managed to take all the points. This Keeps Newcastle in 5th Place with Saracens knocked off the top of the league by Leamington. Newcastle take on 4th placed Rylands next week and are again hopeful of a strong performance to take them up the league.