The gallant north Walians, who run out of Ruthin RFC, were no match for the unbeaten Belles, who had won the U15 title last year at ‘Road to Principality 2022’ with a 17-7 victory over Cardiff Quins Girls.
The Taff Bargoed valley team ran in nine tries without reply as they dominated from start to finish. There were two each from prop Evie Hill, No 8 and captain Tia Jones and flanker Sadie Jones, while other tries came from scrum half Lily Hawkins, lock Chiara Pearce and hooker Seren Thomas.
Tight head prop Evie Hill scored twice for the Belles
There were three conversions from centre Mariah Lynch to complete the scoring in a game that saw the two teams change ends with the Belles holding a commanding interval lead of 29-0. Having run in five tries.
“It was really amazing and my team put in so much effort. We have come so far to get to where we are today,” said Belles skipper, Tia Jones.
“Fair play to the Ravens, they put up a hell of a fight today. This was a great opportunity for us to pick up silverware and we’ve been targeting this all season.
“Because we’d won a title here last season we had a target on our backs, so winning again has made us all feel very proud and boosted out confidence.”
Although the Ravens didn’t get on the scoreboard, they stretched the Belles defence at times and had plenty of pace out wide.
“It was a fantastic game and the scoreline didn’t reflect the true output of the game. The Ravens just kept on coming and coming at us and put together some very nice passages of play,” said Belles director of rugby, Mark Picton-Powell .
“We scored some nice tries and came away with a nice win in the end. The best part was seeing the girls really enjoying their rugby here at the Principality Stadium.
“We started in 2011 as the Belles and we’ve built up from there. We now have sides at U12, 14, 16, 18 and senior women level.
“A lot of our players are in academy programmes and some are in Wales U18 training. Nine of this squad will be going into the U18 age group next season, but we now have a constant conveyor belt of players coming through with a load of U14 players ready to step up.”
The first try of the game came from flanker Sadie Jones and then set the forward platform for the Belles. To their credit, the Ravens never gave up and skipper and centre Hanna Tudor led by example in never shirking a tackle.
“The girls worked so hard to get here, turning up twice a week for training. They’ve been playing against the best teams in north Wales and had to come up against a very, very strong Nelson team,” said the Ravens head coach.
Runners up the Ravens
