Guernsey Raiders were taken apart by Vagabonds 74-24 in the women’s rugby friendly game at Ballafletcher on Saturday afternoon.

The home side’s strike runner, Isla Curphey, ran in a total of four tries, three of which came within a space of less than five minutes.

Guernsey started the livelier and looked a little quicker around the park, but in rugby there’s no substitute for power and Vagabonds had bags of it.

They took the lead after eight minutes when number eight Mayun Campbell crashed over from close range. Sophie Henry converted for a 7-0 lead.

Vagas were in again 15 minutes later. Corrina Daly, unusually playing at prop, barged her way over the line as the Vagas forwards started to dominate.

Guernsey then struck back. Number eight Tanya Scholz scooped up a loose ball around halfway and blasted a gap through the Vagas defence. Once she was behind the Vagabonds line she brushed off the tackle of full back Emily Webb and dotted down under the posts.

Vicki Rang’s conversion was good and the teams turned around with Vagas 12-7 in front at the end of the first quarter.

The Vagabonds bench looked impressive on paper and was similarly so on the field. The first change was to bring Rachel Beckley on at scrum half. She brought energy and chaos to the base of the scrum and was immediately in the thick of it.

Within three minutes she tapped a five-metre penalty and created space for Jess Swales to dive in to extend the lead. Henry converted to make it 19-7 and kickstart a period of one-way traffic.

Seven minutes into the second quarter Allanah Pritchard broke clear and, when the ball was recycled, Henry finished the move off.

Ten minutes later a forward thrust made space out wide for Leona McGovern to score and make it 29-7.

Vagabonds then turned the screws by bringing on Isla Curphey and Fran Hunt. The latter found space on the left, Beckley tracked her and took the off-load. After a one-two interplay with prop Natalie Bush the ball was moved right and Curphey was unstoppable. Pritchard converted to make the lead 36-7.

From the restart, Vagas’ skipper Jules Harrison smashed her way upfield and once again Curphey was on hand to finish under the posts. Pritchard converted again to leave Vagas 43-7 in front at half -time.

There was no let up for Guernsey. From the kick-off, Curphey returned the ball from 40 metres out to complete her hat-trick with Pritchard’s conversion bringing up the 50 points.

As the 15-minute mark neared, Curphey was in for her fourth, again capitalising on some Harrison graft. Pritchard again converted to leave Vagas with an unassailable 57-7 advantage.

At the end of the third quarter Sammie Macdonald added a further Vagas try, before Scholz ran in her second of the afternoon to give the Guernsey supporters something to cheer about.

With Vagas 62-12 in front the final quarter seemed a formality and a few minutes in Curphey made another big run to set up Pritchard for a try. Henry converted to extend the lead.

Guernsey were far from out of it and their stand-out player Scholz completed her hat-trick with a 15-metre surge off the back of a scrum. Vicki Rang’s conversion made it 69-19.

Megan Seward then marked her Raiders’ debut with a try wide on the right to make the scoreboard look a little more respectable, but it was Vagas who had the final say when Rachel Overman dived over at the end to make it 74-24.

- Vagabonds women will feature in the new-look Manx Bowl competition starting on October 3. Their fixtures against the men will be limited to non-contact rugby.