Vagabonds Women's Rugby Team had a busy and not unsuccessful Easter Festival.

Saturday saw them competing in a triangular tournament against Carlisle and Slough/Tewksbury.

In the opening game Vagabonds ran out winners by twenty-two points to nil against Slough/Tewksbury with tries coming from Amy Wheeler , Rachel Beckley , Janine Cringle and Helen Wheeler with a conversion by Penny Thorpe. Gemma Rae was selected as Vagabonds player of the match after some excellent work in the lineout and loose play.

In the second match the powerful Carlisle side ran in eight tries against Slough/Tewksbury with an impressive display of running rugby.

The final game saw Vagabonds facing Carlisle and the home side soon found themselves under pressure. Carlisle were showing themselves to be a very organised unit and despite some determined defending Vagabonds finally went down by fifteen points to nil. The whole side defended superbly for long periods of the game with Gemma Rae , Amy Wheeler and Amoure Ferreira making some outstanding tackles. Player of the match for the Manx side was Rachel Beckley whose tactical awareness kept Vagabonds within touching distance of their more powerful opponents for much of the game.

Some photos (courtesy of Brian Goldie ©) -

The girls followed a hard day's rugby with a hard night out with their coaches - here's a flavour of the start of the evening in Vagas clubhouse - 

On Sunday Vagabonds ( plus two Slough players) played Carlisle at tens in a curtain raiser for the men's sevens competition . If Carlisle were a powerful and effective fifteen a side unit then they were even better at tens. Consistently off-loading in the tackle they were able to suck in the defence before exploiting the gaps out wide . Vagabonds ran themselves into the ground defending but still came out on the wrong side of a twenty -seven points to nil scoreline. Sarah Dale was the worthy recipient of the player of the match award after a lung busting effort in the front row.

Vagabonds played well over the weekend but Carlisle showed them that there is still some way to go. They will take some useful lessons into training over the next few weeks before their final game of the season against Whitchurch.

Some photos - 

President of Vagabonds Des Collins presenting the Cains Cup to the Captain of Carlisle	The Carlisle team with their additional trophy 'Vagaboy'
Chairman of Vagabonds Allan Thompson and Des Collins presenting Sarah Dale of Carlisle with the 'Player of the Match' award	Allan and Des with Janine Cringle who won the 'Playerof  the Match' award for Vagabonds together with the Captain of Carlisle