Vagabonds women celebrated International Women’s Day with a 62-8 defeat of Bury at Ballafletcher on Saturday, with the jewel in the crown a hat-trick from flanker Bea O’Neill.

Only four minutes had passed when O’Neill raced in for her first try. Vagas sensed there was space wide and, when O’Neill was fed ball just inside her own half, she outflanked the narrow Bury defence and raced in under the posts. Sammie Macdonald converted. Six minutes later, in a virtual carbon copy, Vagas’ other pace runner Freya Crowe was also fed ball just inside the Vagas half.

She found a gap in the Bury line and glided through it before turning in the taps for a high-speed run in. Macdonald converted again which left a shell-shocked Bury 14-0 adrift.

Visiting skipper Macy Norton struck a penalty after twenty minutes to reduce the lead but it wasn’t for long.

Vagas attacked up the left wing with Gabby De Oliveira. She provided quick ball and the Bury defence was caught narrow again, with Crowe running in her second of the match on their right flank.

The away side then hit back at the other end. Norton made a break up the middle and, when Vagas knocked on at the breakdown, they had a perfect attacking scrum inside the 22.

The front five were immediately under pressure from Vagas but held out long enough for scrum-half Grace Cockroft to launch from the back of the scrum and drive over the line. In the latter stages of the half, Vagas cancelled out the score when a Lauren Ellison tap penalty saw Corinna Daly punch over on a crash ball. Macdonald added another conversion to see Vagas turn around 26-8 ahead.

Bury’s hopes of a second-half resurgence were quickly dashed. Only four minutes after the restart, O’Neill wrestled a turnover and, after stripping the ball, she made an unstoppable run for the line and her second of the game. Macdonald’s conversion made it 33-8 and gave Vagas an uncatchable lead.

As the game entered its final 20 minutes, Bury began to tire and Vagas exploited this. Some lineout trickery on the hour saw Daly grab her second of the game from a ball faked to the back but thrown to the front.

Three minutes later, a Leona McGovern break was recycled quickly to Ros McNair on the left wing and, just before the 70-minute mark, Daly crash ball created space for Lauren Ellison to finish and make it 48-8.

There was still time for two more though. Just inside the final 10, O’Neill completed her hat-trick and with the final play of the game Leona McGovern crashed in. Macdonald converted both late scores.

Southern Nomads beat Western Vikings 41-19 at QEII on Saturday to close the gap to Hartford Homes Manx Shield leaders Douglas to only four points.

It was tight at half-time though, with Nomads leading 10-7 after tries from Sam Kennaugh and Mike Craine.

Craine added his second after the break, with other tries coming from Stan Cubbon, Tom Collister, Jack McHugh (on debut) and Josh Linwood.

Saturday, March 7:

Regional Two North West

Douglas 25-26 Firwood Waterloo

Counties Three ADM Lancashire/Cheshire

Orrell 73-12 Ramsey

Women’s NC2 North (South)

Vagabonds 62-8 Bury

Hartford Holmes Manx Shield

Western Vikings 19-41 PDMS Southern Nomads