On Saturday afternoon, at Newforge, after the Schools Interprovincial, Cooke Women entertained the Severn River RFC, touring side, from the shores of Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA. As Cooke contributed a number of players to the Ulster side, they fielded a scratch team, of young players, recently retired players and guests. Even, at that, they started the game with 13 players.

Cooke’s 13 players took the game to Severn River and opened the scoring, after 12 minutes, when Katie Gilmour powered over, for a 5-0 lead.

Gradually numbers wore Cooke down. Sarah Mercado’s spectacular dive over, followed by Charlee Bryan’s conversion gave Severn River a 7-5 lead, on 20 minutes. Three minutes later Casey Hartzell‘s crash ball and Bryan’s conversion . . .