Bo Westcombe-Evans scored a sensational hat-trick as Loughborough Lightning rose to the occasion of Friday Night Lights at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens to claim an impressive 43-33 victory over Harlequins.
The rapid Red Roses winger struck twice in the first half after Lis Maude and Daisy Hibbert-Jones had crossed the line to open a ten-point lead at the break, with Harlequins landing two converted scores of their own.
Lightning’s lead was at one stage in the second half cut to just five points as Quins managed three tries after the interval, but the hosts were not to be denied as Christine Belisle and Carmela Morrall both added tries in the second period either side of Westcombe-Evans wrapping up her treble to secure maximum points and avenge the 52-42 loss in Round 1 with a bonus point win.
FIRST HALF
Lightning fired the early attacking shots as Westcombe-Evans showed Ellie Kildunne a clean pair of heels with a fine break, and Alev Kelter made attacking inroads – but it was the visitors who landed the first scoring blow.
After kicking a penalty to the corner and going close with a long series of energy-sapping close-range drives, Quins triggered their backs and Kildunne cut a neat line under the posts.
The response from Lightning produced one of their tries of the season. Hibbert-Jones burgled a breakdown just outside her own 22, Rachel Ehrecke teased a tempting ball out in front of Westcombe-Evans, as the winger set off down the left wing before putting in a grubber and racing to within 15 metres of the line, where Maude was on hand to scoop up from the base of the resulting ruck to finish.
Jade Konkel and Daisy Hibbert-Jones traded close-range tries until the game opened dramatically in Lightning’s favour. A sparkling linebreak from Belisle forced Kildunne into a deliberate knock-on, earning the fullback a yellow card.
It proved to be costly sin-binning as Westcombe-Evans went into overdrive, firstly weaving her way on a diagonal run to the line after a sublime display of hands from Belisle and Bulou Mataitoga.
With 90 seconds of the half remaining, Lightning fielded a kick 25 metres from their own line and decided to roll the dice and it worked to devastating effect. They kept the ball into first-half stoppage time, making 19 passes and completing four rucks as nine different players got their hands on the ball before Hibbert-Jones teased the drifting defence inside out to put Westcombe-Evans in from 35 metres out to finish close to the left corner flag.
SECOND HALF
With Kildunne still in the sin bin, Lightning stretched their advantage four minutes after the restart when Belisle cleverly snuck the ball over from a ruck a metre out. Helena Rowland slotted the conversion and Konkel was yellow carded for an offence in the build-up to the try.
This time Quins were resolute with their player disadvantage and cut the deficit when Freya Aucken finished an overlap along the right channel. Konkel had returned by the time the gap between the sides was cut to five when Sarah Parry stepped infield to touch down and Ella Cromack landed a conversion from out wide entering the final third of the contest.
The African Violets didn’t panic, and they produced another period of total rugby from a kick return to wrestle back the momentum.
Once more from a kick return, Lightning went from coast to coast, venturing from inside their own half and into the attacking 22, as Kelter arrived crashing onto a scissors move with Fancy Bermudez.
Just under a minute after she’d fielded the box kick to start the move, Westcombe-Evans pulled in another assist from Hibbert-Jones to scorch the turf along the left wing for her third of the evening.
Having let a two-score lead slip in the second half in defeats to Bristol Bears and Sale Sharks, Lightning eased any fears of that happening again with another unstoppable score with three replacements at the heart of it.
Kendall Waudby pounced on a split ball and immediately got her side on the front foot. Lilli Ives Campion swerved her way through heavy traffic, offloading brilliantly in the tackle to Hibbert-Jones. Upon the recycle, replacement prop Isla Curphey advanced her side ten metres with a stomping carry. Finally, Meg Davey, quickly pulled the ball out of the resulting ruck and Morrall wrapped up her excellent shift with a well-deserved try, bouncing off two tacklers before popping up off the ground to finish. Rowland added another superb conversion to take the lead to 17 with just a couple of minutes to play.
Cromack scored a converted try with the last play of the game for Quins, but Lightning weren’t to be denied as they secured their first victory of 2026 to close the gap on the top four, heading into the visit of Gloucester-Hartpury to cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens on Sunday 22 March – tickets are available by clicking HERE.
HEAD COACH NATHAN SMITH
“I am really proud of the group. We have really learned from the last two games and put that out there on the field. We learned with our game management, controlling momentum swings, and that was far, far better than it has been over the last two games.” - Read the full story by clicking HERE.
LINE UPS:
LIGHTNING: 15 Bulou Mataitoga, 14 Fancy Bermudez, 13 Alev Kelter, 12 Carmela Morrall, 11 Bo Westcombe-Evans, 10 Helena Rowland, 9 Lis Maude; 1 Anne Young, 2 Kathryn Treder, 3 Christine Belisle, 4 Lilli Ives Campion, 5 Rachel Ehrecke, 6 Daisy Hibbert-Jones (c), 7 Sadia Kabeya, 8 Haineala Lutui
Replacements: 16 Paige Stathopoulos, 17 Isla Curphey, 18 Mae Sagapolu 19 Becky Boyd, 20 Kendall Waudby, 21 Tahlia Brody, 22 Meg Davey, 23 Lia Green.
HARLEQUINS: 15 Ellie Kildunne, 14 Claudia Peña, 13 Sarah Parry, 12 Lagi Tuima, 11 Freya Aucken, 10 Ella Cromack, 9 Emma Swords; 1 Zara Green, 2 Connie Powell, 3 Lizzie Hanlon, 4 Fi McIntosh, 5 Jade Konkel (c), 6 Liana Mikaele‑Tu’u, 7 Sara Svoboda, 8 Aoife Wafer,
Replacements: 16 Carys Phillips, 17 Laura Delgado, 18 Ruby Winstanley, 19 Nicole Wythe, 20 Maja Meuller, 21 Lucy Burgess, 22 Kayleigh Powell, 23 Beth Wilcock.
Photographs by: Stu Vincent, Maeve Blencowe, Claire Jones, Dennis Dixon.