By Sian Haynes 
Barkers Butts U.15 girls
The Butts Park Arena witnessed history on Saturday as it played host to its first ever game of girls rugby.
The under 15 ladies teams from Barkers Butts and Old Halesonians fought out a well-contested match in front of an appreciative crowd prior to Cov’s Championship Cup win over Yorkshire Carnegie.
And on a day when Barkers Butts product Rob Knox was named as the Rugby Paper’s man-of-the-match, the Meriden-based club logged a notable double when their girls claimed an exciting 29-22 success.
Barkers built a 17-10 half-time lead thanks to tries from Ellie Tranter, Abbie Kipping and Emily Knox.
The second half was just as equally matched as Old Halesonians battled back to claim a 17 – 22 lead, before the Warwickchire club turned things round thanks to tries from Emma Bewley and a second for Emily Knox.
Carl Southwell, Barkers U15 head coach and chairman of the club’s girls section said:
“What an opportunity we enjoyed at such a great venue for our young ladies to play what was a very good game. It is always nice to take a hard fought win and I’m looking forward to what the future holds with through linking up with Coventry.”
Coventry Rugby community manager Ben Gulliver said:
“What a fantastic occasion Saturday was; not only was it a brilliant game of rugby but we were also very proud to host our first girls or women’s game at BPA.
“We hope this is just the start of something special for the women and girls of Coventry. Big thanks to everyone at Barkers who helped support the day.”
Watch a clip of action from the match below:
Video clip – Joe Pepper
