Bo Westcombe-Evans scored half of Loughborough Lightning’s eight tries to secure a convincing 50-15 victory in the East Midlands Derby at Leicester Tigers’ expense.
The 23-year-old marked the occasion of her 50th appearance with a brace of scores in both halves as the African Violets turned a 16-point advantage at the break to 35 come the final whistle.
Kathryn Treder, Lucia Scott, Kendall Waudby and Lucy Calladine also got in on the try-scoring act and Helen Nelson added ten points from the boot to secure maximum points at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens.
First Half:
It was Tigers who flew out of the traps early doors as former Lightning back Georgie Lingham fended a tackler and angled a strong run into the left corner to finish.
Lightning responded with two tries in quick succession. Scott, who was brought into proceedings after just five minutes following Bulou Mataitoga’s head injury, scored with her first touch after skilfully scooping up a beautifully-weighted grubber through from Westcombe-Evans. Lightning were showing they could do it all with a powerful scrum leading to a penalty, and a dominant rolling maul got Treder over – with Nelson landing both kicks from out wide.
Wonderful hands from Lightning allowed them to get on the front foot, and captain Daisy Hibbert-Jones sold the dummy out wide and released Westcome-Evans to break down the wing to open her account for the afternoon.
Tigers responded with a rolling maul of their own deep in the corner to double their tally with Eneka Labeyrie applying the final touch, but Westcombe-Evans responded with her second of the afternoon after a nice break from Fancy Bermudez on a kick return located space on the left wing.
Second Half:
Lightning picked up where they left off in the second half as a a loose bounce of the ball allowed them to pounce and spread the ball out wide, and Westcombe-Evans bumped off the covering defender to finish for her hat-trick.
They followed it up with a beautiful move off the lineout, with Calladine collecting her own through and feeding Alev Kelter to make a scything break and get the offload away to centre partner Carmela Morrall, who made a stunning run and eventually got to the ball out to Waudby to finish in the corner.
Tigers were determined to fight till the end and had consistent pressure in the red zone, and eventually, they came away with a third try from Emily Henrich.
But the home side proved too strong and finished the game with two more tries. One from Calladine who crashed over from close range, and then finally Westcombe-Evans gathered a lovely grubber in behind from Nelson to finish for her fourth of the afternoon.
The bonus-point success takes Nathan Smith’s side to 13 points from four rounds, heading into next Sunday’s visit to Saracens (7 December).
Head Coach Nathan Smith:
“I thought after a two-week break, we started a bit slow, but we gradually built into the game. There were some really strong performances, especially from some of the players who came on in the second half.
“I think some of their performances turned the game in our favour, and it’s always special to get a win over the Tigers in the derby in front of our home crowd.”
Line-ups:
Lightning: 15 Mataitoga,14 Bermudez, 13 Kelter,12 Morrall, 11 Westcombe-Evans, 10 Nelson, 9 Maude; 1 Williams, 2 Treder, 3 Sagapolu, 4 Ives Campion, 5 Boyd, 6 Brody, 7 Waudby, 8 Hibbert-Jones ©.
Replacements: 16 Calladine, 17 Young, 18 Curphey, 19 Fitzpatrick, 20 Ehrecke, 21 Kabeya, 22 Davey, 23 Scott.
Leicester Tigers: 15 Feury (c), 14 Daley, 13 McCalman, 12 Lingham, 11 Henrich, 10 Bitter, 9 Labeyrie; 1 Smith, 2 Bainbridge, 3 Dunne,4 Farmer, 5 Allen, 6 Russell, 7 Richardson, 8 Gordon.
Replacements: 16 Watkins, 17 Cregan,18 Vincent, 19 Heath, 20 Sinclair, 21 Maxwell, 22 Priestnall, 23 Amstead.