HOLDERS Supermarine Ladies secured their place in the RFU Women's Intermediate Plate final for a second year in succession as Romford & Gidea Park Ladies were beaten 29-12 on Sunday.

Marine will defend their crown in the final at Lichfield on April 23, with Darlington the opponents after their 51-10 success over Birkenhead Ladies.

The Wiltshire women's last encounter with Romford had been last year's quarter final success, but they were in trouble early on this time around.

Unfortunately, a number of knock ons and poor handling initially led to turnovers and the Ravens took advantage, scoring their first try within 10 minutes which they converted.

From the restart, the game appeared scrappy and both teams initially made little ground either way.

But with players over, Romford passed the ball out wide and added their second try.

That woke Marine up and they started forcing Romford into making a number of errors.

With the Ravens lying on the wrong side of the ruck, a penalty, quick hands and an impressive switch led to Marine breaking the line and number eight Claire Chard crossing the whitewash on 28 minutes.

From the kick off, Romford were close to making another break but, with no support, the ball carrier was brought to ground by full-back Tara Godby to give Marine possession.

Going through the phases, with another penalty against Romford for a high tackle then another mere seconds later for going in at the side, Marine had the upper hand and scrum-half Karen Adams scored the second try on 39 minutes, converted by centre Nat Williams to tie the scores up at half time A motivational speech by coach Jamie Barrett gave Marine renewed vigour for the second half and consistent, solid play gave prop Aileen Douglas a platform for a third try on 46 minutes.

From the restart, Marine pressed hard and kept play in Romford’s 22.

A series of swift offloads led to a break by winger Jenny Benton, giving the Wiltshire side their fourth try of the match on the hour, again converted by Williams.

An impressive take of a high ball by Godby gave Marine possession again and they made substantial ground into the visitors’ 22.

Another penalty saw a passage of quick hands by Williams and Chard, the ball being shipped wide to Benton who crossed the whitewash again on 70 minutes.

Marine defended well against an all-out attack to clinch their place in the final again.