READING Abbey Ladies’ coach Jack Reynolds has said his side’s 24-14 loss to Hove RFC was a “reality check” that his evolving Championship outfit will learn from, writes Fiona Tomas.

The Nuns had to settle for a losing bonus-point as they succumbed to a home defeat at Rose Hill on Sunday to deny them a third consecutive victory in Championship South.

It was a bittersweet result for Reynolds’ outfit, who enjoyed the brighter start after prop Fi Manning powered over from a quick tap-and-go, before Alice Denton added the extras.

Hove responded through two successive tries after a lengthy period of possession saw them camped in Abbey’s half with a series of quick offloads.

Abbey were awarded a penalty try shortly after Anais Carbon was tackled high in a period of attacking play orchestrated by a blitzing run from Denton to edge the hosts in front 14-12.

But Hove’s experience surfaced in the second half when, despite a ferocious defensive effort from Hayley Matthews and former Hove taliswoman Annabel Hawkins, the East Sussex outfit showed greater hunger.

It was not until the hour mark when the visitors dotted down the first of two second-half scores in a game which Abbey will feel hard-done by after promising passages of attacking play.

The result sees Abbey maintain their sixth spot in the table, before a crunch away fixture at leaders Thurrock RFC this Sunday.

Speaking after his side’s performance, Reynolds backed his side to show greater tenacity against the table-toppers in what he called a stern learning test for his squad.

“Sunday’s game was a reality check for the side, there isn’t such a thing as an easy game in this league,” he said.

“We are disappointed with the result as we knew we started poorly and conceded soft tries which isn’t the Abbey way.

“We have lost games, but made teams work to get their scores – we gifted them two early ones.

“Even when we got ahead, we then fell behind, but we still created opportunities to win the game.

“Ultimately, we took a losing bonus point which is just as valuable as a win sometimes when you add them up.”