Wigtownshire skipper Neve Finlay has not stopped smiling since the weekend, saying that leading her club to women’s National Shield success at Murrayfield was an “unbelievable feeling”.
They tasted glory at the national stadium in Edinburgh by defeating West One rivals Greenock Wanderers 37-17 in a cracking match which was one of three women’s ones played there and at Hive Stadium alongside four men’s ones on Silver Saturday.
“It is an unbelievable feeling, I am so proud of all the girls and everyone at the club who has helped us get to this position,” hooker Finlay, who was named Player of the Match and carried hard throughout, said.
“Everyone has worked so hard over the last couple of seasons and it has all been building to this moment.
“And the great thing is that I think this is only the start, there is so much potential in our squad and so much potential to try and grow women’s and girls rugby at the club in the local area and a moment like this and winning a trophy can only help with that.
“We are really fortunate to have a lot of pace and energy in our team and players like myself in the forwards know that if we can make yards in the middle of the pitch and create an attacking platform then we have a number of skilful backs who can finish off tries.
“From 12-8 down in this game we didn’t panic and to score three tries before half-time after that gave us a bit of a cushion.
“Greenock are a side we respect and we knew that they would come back at us, so in the second half we just had to keep working hard and the feeling at the end when the final whistle blew was brilliant.
“We had such a great backing who travelled to watch us play too and for a small community club like us to have won something at Murrayfield means an awful lot.”
In terms of the final, well it was 8-0 to Wigtownshire after 15 minutes thanks to a penalty by stand-off Sophie Mann and a try from full-back Laura McNeil.
Greenock fought back though and were 12-8 up after 25 minutes thanks to tries from winger Rachel Towle and skipper Tina Hemphill along with one conversion from full-back Catriona Gallagher.
Three tries and a conversion put Wigtownshire 25-12 up at half-time, wingers Isla Campbell and Niamh Wilson and back-row Amy McNeil with the five-pointers and Mann with the extras.
Wigtownshire had their tails up and back-row Hannah Owen scored a try just after the break.
Greenock then had a player yellow carded and, versus 14, Wilson scored her second try converted by Mann to make it 37-12 to Wigtownshire.
Wanderers never gave up and scored the last try via No.8 Hemphill, but Wigtownshire came out on top.
Highlights are available here.
Remember that Dalkeith won the Bowl, Annan won the Plate and Watsonians won the Sarah Beaney Cup.
The Guinness Women’s Six Nations runs from March 22 to April 26 and, next up at home, Scotland are at Hive Stadium in round five versus Ireland on the final day – get tickets here.
Wigtownshire are pictured celebrating – thanks to Scottish Rugby
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