Cardiff women silence Swansea in an exceptional victory bringing home the trophy yet again. Varsity veteran Karolina Thomas with numerous line breaks and hard yards throughout the game earned her keep scoring the final try, bringing the full time score to 71-12.
After a tense scoreless first ten minutes, sportswoman of the year nominee, Ellie Tromans was the first to add points as Emily Hay sets her up to dance her way through the Swansea defense. Shortly after Jos Stirzaker, patiently waiting on the wing breaks through, stepping inside to score her first of four trys in the varsity match. Coming from playing a high standard of netball for Cardiff University in her first year, Stirzaker finishes off her first season of rugby with an exceptional player of the match performance at the Swansea.com arena.
Swansea entered half time with a strong performance, managing to score two trys as a result of Cardiff’s ill discipline in areas, closing the gap to a nail biting 19-12 to Cardiff at half time.
Things opened up for Cardiff in the second half as they settled into the game with Stirzaker scoring her third moments in set up by a pass from captain Zoe Dare on her final varsity appearance for Cardiff University.
As the Cardiff bench piled onto the pitch, they shut down any attacking threats from Swansea keeping them scoreless for the remainder of the game. A strong turnover by Rose Halstead sets up Lily Jones for an incredible line break as she offloads to Dare who puts it into the hands of fresher of the year nominee Gabriela Della-Savina.
Relentless hard yards by Cardiff’s forward pack keep Swansea at bay as they fail to execute any of their attempts to create something in the second half. Coupled with a relentless Cardiff attack who never fail to find the try line.
Ffion James breaks through the line, offloading to Anna Davies who reaches over the line to score - her first official appearance wearing a Cardiff shirt after undergoing ACL surgery last summer.
The persistent Swansea side tried their hardest to push through Cardiff’s defense in the last few minutes but were kept at bay. The clock rolls over into extra time as scrum half Eva Lewis decides to have one more go, popping the ball to Dare who offloads to Hay, through the hands of Halstead who sets Karolina Thomas up for one last try. Haywood finishes the game off by nudging the conversion through as red shirts flood onto the pitch in celebration of a stunning Varsity 2024 performance!