True to form the Devils left it until the final game of the afternoon to really get their rugby brains in gear, but they did so in real style, punishing a tired Shanghai team with a series of excellent tries for a comprehensive victory.
In fairness to Shanghai they travelled to Beijing with a small squad whereas the Devils had had the luxury of plentiful subs as well as a slightly younger team, but nothing should be taken away from the Devils’ final performance of the season – it was determined, organised and classy.
The Devils tackled well and ran hard from the kick off until the death, with Lehtonen, Sliney and Bridges all going close to the line thanks to excellent solo drives and solid scrumming. But it was the backs who kept nipping through defensive gaps to find the space and time to run in no less than seven tries, the highlight of which was a great team effort finished by Cheung.
After a tussle in the middle of the pitch, Kate Sliney released Jeannie Ivanov who charged through a gap in the defence and drew three defenders before she ran out of gas and popped to Cheung on the wing, who beat two pursuing sharks to go over the line for a spectacular try.
Other scores were contributed by the ever impressive Aurore Marie, who ran in another two long range solo efforts, one more from Cheung, one from Ivanov and an excellent final score by Midi Song, who was impressive on her contact debut for the Devils. The reliable boot of Cox contributed a further four points to give the devils a resounding victory.