The visitors started brightly with a long spell of possession but the home side’s defence started as it would go on and pinned their opposition back in their own 22. With Cullompton struggling to get down the field, Teddington almost sored from a well worked turnover but Aimee Miller was swallowed up in midfield and the chance was lost.
Minutes later though, Teddington worked the phases well with Heather Smith and Karin Ballantyne to the fore and when the ball came left Clare Brown passed quickly to Izzy Jorris whose pace took her over the line for a 5-0 lead.
The home side then began to dominate possession and played some fantastic rugby in front of a big home crowd. Nicola Collins was hitting the line well from fullback and Brown and Laura Parry made some decisive thrusts forward in attack. However it was right winger Chryssa Warlow who scored next. Again Teddington’s pack carried strongly, with Karen Griffin and Penny Carr involved too and when Zoe Feenan hit a great line, Teddington were up into the Cullompton 22. The ball was moved right quickly and Warlow finished brilliantly between two defenders.

Parry struck a great conversion and it looked as if Antlers were in control after 25 minutes.
However the visitors came back into it and almost scored from turnover on the halfway line with Teddington needing two great tackles from Warlow and Miller to keep them out. At halftime it was 12-0 to the hosts.
Cullompton were hugely improved after the break as Teddington were forced back on the defensive for much of the half. Emma Davis was pressed into a huge number of tackles and off the bench Jane Wescott’s influence proved important as the game wore on and got tenser and tenser.

Teddington were guilty of coughing up far too much ball in contact and as the Cullompton scrum grew stronger, their hard running back row earned them field position just 10 metres from the Antlers try line. After a huge number of scrum resets finally the visitors crossed the tryline as wave after wave of attack took its toll. With the score 12-5 Teddington had six minutes to hold out and there were delirious scenes as the referee awarded a try to Jorris who had raced through from the kickoff under the posts – only for him to change his mind minutes later.

Nonetheless it did waste valuable time as Teddington then forced a knockon and the whistle blew.
Antlers will play Romford in the final at Lichfield on March 29th KO TBC.