Match Report of U15s Away at Oakmeadians 29th January
2012 SSB v Oakmeadians, 29th January 2012Venue: Oakmeadians RFC On
Sunday 29th January our intrepid band set off to make the long trek down to Bournemouth to play the return league
match against Oakmeadians. Our last two games against Oaks had been very close, so we expected a very tough game from a team
who have been improving every time we played them. Unfortunately we were also missing a few of our more experienced and older
players due to illness, injury and family birthdays – so here’s hoping we can have everyone available for the
next game at home against Solent Sirens on the 26th Feb and for the last game of the season away at Aylesford on
the 11th March. We had 11 players available so we played with 5 forwards and 6 backs, and LOTS of players
out of position. (Whereas Oaks had the luxury of 7 replacements they could bring on to replace tired legs or players with
small knocks during the game.) Thanks very much to all the SSB players who played out of position – with hardly a moan!
- to help the team out on the day. In particular Jordan played at tight-head in the absence of Emily and did a great job both
in the scrum and around the field. Charley made the leap from number 8 to fly-half as Izzy was ill – and put in a great
performance setting her backs free, putting in the tackles and even kicking a conversion! And Hermie stepped up from full-back
to the unfamiliarity of inside-centre, and was also captain for the day – performing admirably in both roles! I know
it feels uncomfortable playing in an unfamiliar position, but hopefully you will all have learned something from that experience
(and not just that you never want to play there ever again!). The whole team played really well and showed the never-say-die
attitude we have come to expect of you. The team format was: Front row - Vikki, Kirsten, JordanSecond row - Natalie, AnnieSH - AshleighFH - CharleyIC - Hermione (Capt)OC - ChloeWings - Jess, Shannon Before the game all the
teams lined up for a very respectful one minute silence in memory of someone connected with Oakmeadians who had died recently
and whose family were present and I am sure appreciated the gesture. And then it was on with the
action. SSB started with some good possession and put pressure on Oaks. There were a number of scrums in these early stages,
which was a pattern throughout the game as there were lots of knock-ons and dropped passes today. The scrum performed well
throughout the game and Jordan in particular deserves praise for filling Emily’s boots so well. However
it was from a scrum that the Oaks excellent, and very dangerous scrum-half, Ella, was able to make a break and went straight
down the middle to score. The try was converted leaving us 7 – 0 down. It did not take long
for the SSB response thanks to a lung-bursting solo effort from Jess, who went all the way around the outside past the cover
defence, and had the time - and speed – to cut back under the posts to score. Charley, our stand-in fly-half, kicked
the conversion: 7 – 7. It was apparent as the game went on that Oakmeadians were extremely well-drilled and
knew what to do at almost every situation – playing in their normal positions probably helped out in that regard though!
– and seemed determined to get one over on us in this game. However, next blood was to the Baa Baas
as another fantastic length of the field run from Jess put us 12 – 7 up. Unfortunately this was our last score of the
game. It was a pretty even game at this stage and we were winning our fair share of the ball thanks
to the magnificent efforts of the forwards, who seemed on average an inch or two shorter than their opposite numbers. We were
getting the ball down our makeshift back line to our wingers pretty well. We just weren’t able to put Shannon or Jess
away in quite enough space to give them a chance to outflank the Oaks cover defence. Next try was another
break by Oaks scrum-half Ella and this was converted to put Oaks 14 – 12 ahead. This was followed quite quickly by another
Oakmeadians try as they won the ball at the scrum and quickly got the ball out to the wing who went over to score. 19 -12. We were still competing at every facet of play and there was some good interplay before we got the ball out to Shannon
who made a determined burst down the wing and was only just pushed out into touch 10 metres from the Oakmeadians line. Not
surprisingly the referee decided it was now half-time. Not far into the second-half Oakmeadians made a very good and vey
determined attack on our line. Thanks to a great covering tackle by one of our players the ball was slightly dislodged as
the Oakmeadians player went over to score and she dropped it before grounding it. But not according to the referee –
who awarded the try to make it 24 -12 to Oaks. SSB kept trying to play and won a rare penalty. Jess attempted to
take it quickly but was herself then penalised as the ball didn’t leave her hands. Another period of good aggressive
play followed from SSB, but the ball just didn’t seem o go to hands at the critical time. Oaks were next to score making
it 29 -12. Although it seemed like a lost cause SSB kept trying to move the ball out to the wings and
Shannon, well supported by Chloe, made a couple of breaks which ALMOST got around the Oaks defence, but never quite made it. Next came another bizarre penalty as the second fantastic hand-off in a break by Jess was deemed to be “a punch”!
This was to add to the alleged “punch” made by Natalie earlier in the game… Some days you just know it
ain’t your day! I know that neither of them were punches – and well done for everyone continuing to play the game
with controlled aggression and not nastiness throughout. The scoring finished with another Oaks try, making it 34 -12 –
but the Baa Baas were still attacking. Unfortunately another break by Shannon ended with a clattering tackle which injured
her ribs again. Hope you are OK Shannon! As it turned out, especially with a weakened team, it was just not
our day. Almost none of those 50-50 passes which sometimes find their target were held onto on Sunday, for example. But I
think an extremely well-drilled Oakmeadians deserved their long-awaited win over us. Let’s hope we can meet them at
the Worthing Tens later in the season and get our revenge there! Match Report: Chris BResult: Oakmeadians
34 - SSB 12Team: Vikki, Kirsten,
Jordan, Natalie, Annie, Ashleigh, Charley, Shannon, Hermione, Chloe, Jess.
Match Report of U15s Home
to Ellingham and Ringwood 15th January 2012 SSB v Ellingham and Ringwood, 15th January
2012Venue: Brighton RFC Ellingham and Ringwood
made the long journey over to play us at Brighton on Sunday 15th January. It was a cold but bright day with a fairly
strong wind making it feel even colder. We had 14 players available for the game and E and R had 12 players. They were happy
to borrow a player from us, thus ensuring that all our players got a full game and we could have a 13 a side game and avoid
having anyone freezing on the touchline; so in the first half Annie played second row for E and R and in the second half Ellie
swapped with her and Annie took her place on the wing for us – so thanks for that girls! The game
started in a lively fashion with some good back play, though interspersed with the occasional dropped ball… The pack
was doing a good job in getting plenty of ball for the backs to play with. After 4 minutes the ball went out along the back
line to Ellie on the right wing, who went over for what I think was her first league try. Well done Ellie! It was too far
out for Izzy to hit the conversion, so we were 5 -0 in the lead. More good passages of play followed, with
backs and forwards interchanging nicely, and the ball went out to Shannon on the left wing this time. She pinned back her
ears and went over to make it 10 -0. Ellingham and Ringwood were not letting us have things all our own
way and made some attacks of their own, which were stifled by good defence from SSB. There followed a couple of attacks which
led to beaks from Shannon, but she was unable to pierce the SSB defence. It was really pleasing to see Chloe (who is a back!)
doing exactly the right thing at a number of rucks – as first player there after the SSB player had gone to ground she
bridged over the ball perfectly to ensure that the ball came back on our side. Our scrum
was awesome, getting the hit in first, and then driving with great control just far enough to win several balls against the
head throughout the game. Ella made a break and got the ball away to Ashleigh who surged toward the E and R line.
Charley was up in support and powered over for our third try to make it 15 – 0. After some good mauling involving our monster
front-row of Vikki, Emily and Kirsten the ball was taken on by Jordan who then passed to Natalie (up in support as ever) and
then onto Charley; a pop off to Ashleigh who passed out to Shannon who got held up by an opposition player in a maul. Time
for Jordan’s speciality – as ever she emerged from the maul with the ball in her possession and set off towards
the opposition line. Pass out to Izzy who executed a perfect pass to Ella, who cut back inside and got over the line for our
fourth try. This was converted by Izzy to make us 22 - 0 up at half-time. After half-time things briefly went wrong... Firstly
we made the same mistake as against Oakmeadians earlier in the season - we thought we had the game won so went to sleep for
the beginning of the second half. Secondly an error from your’s truly: Ella had a blood injury which wouldn't stop
bleeding so was off the field as the second half began. I thought she was about to rejoin play and didn’t realise until
five minutes of the second half had passed that she had still not done so…when I did eventually realise and asked the
E and R coach to drop a player until she came back on we had let two tries in, and Ella was running back onto the pitch behind
me! Almost
from the second half kick-off they got the ball and ran the ball round to the opposite wing then all the way in to score.
Just a few minutes later, with us still a player down (doh!), they did the same thing. This time Hermione spotted the danger
and made a great cover tackle but another Ellingham player was able to pick the ball up and ran straight down the wing to
score. It was now 22 – 10.
After that Ella came back on
and normal service was resumed. She had a hand in the next try, passing the ball out to Shannon who made one of her trademark
bursts to score. 27 – 10. From the kick-off Hermione made a break straight down the middle, passed on to Ella, and then onto
Chloe who was up in support. On this occasion the attack petered out as cold hands meant the ball was dropped. But this attack
had brought us into Embo’s striking range. Emily showed great determination and burst over from 10 metres out to make
it 32 – 10. Next it was E and R’s turn to attack, and it was tit-for-tat for a few minutes before some more great back play
from SSB leading to the ball eventually getting into Izzy’s hands who ran under the posts to score. That made it 37
– 10 and was the final score of the game. There were some things which we need to work on out of this game. We messed up
a few good attacking opportunities due to dropping the ball or knocking on at key times (cold hands partly to blame I think).
Other opportunities were missed as we sometimes chose to cut back inside into heavy traffic when there was a screaming overlap
on the outside. There is a time and place to cut back inside but where we have an overlap and fast backs outside that is generally
going to be our best option. Another little thing which would help our game would be if our support players realise they need to
make more of an effort to catch up with the player who has made the break (I think "bust a gut" is the scientific
term?) because when people like Izzy or Shannon did that during the game they usually took out the only remaining defender
in striking distance so if there had been anyone close enough to pass to they would probably have had an easy run in to score!
On other occasions the pass is not made because the supporting player who is close enough to pass to doesn't SCREAM that
they are available to take the pass... so the attack breaks down with a (silent) support player in a position where they could
have taken a pass. Communication!
Back to the positives: our scrum was superb and we won several balls against
the head - very controlled in driving the 1.5 m, winning the ball and then stopping before the scrum was reset. On the whole it
was a very good game and some of our play was superb - competing at the breakdown was excellent as was our normal offloading
game. Charley proved a great addition in her first game for SSB, powering forward with the ball when we had it and putting
in some big hits when the opposition had the ball. There were some great passages of play by us with backs and forwards interchanging
brilliantly. Some of the passages of play would have graced any game of rugby so I think we are heading in the right direction
and continuing to improve. Thanks though to a relatively young Ellingham and Ringwood team who have improved quite considerably
from the first game of the season as more of their girls now have game experience and who put up some good resistance right
to the end. Match Report: Chris
BResult: SSB 37 – Ellingham
and Ringwood 10Team: Vikki, Kirsten, Emily (capt), Jordan, Natalie, Charley,
Ashleigh, Izzy, Shannon, Ella, Chloe, Ellie, Hermione, Annie. SSB v Aylesford Bulls, 27th November 2011 Venue: Lewes RFC
I think most of us had been looking forward to this game for quite a while, a chance to see how
far we have progressed and improved against a team who have routinely beaten us by large margins in previous seasons and who
we have struggled to score against in the past.
And
what a cracking game of rugby it was... in fact it was so exciting that I didn't have time to make my usual copious notes
to help compile this match report, so apologies if you don't get a mention or some of the stuff is in the wrong order!
Sadly Ella had been ill overnight and so could not make it (hope you are better
soon) so we had to make some adjustments before kick-off: Hermione was moved up to inside centre to help disrupt their midfield
attack, Chloe to outside centre, Jess went to full-back and Annie stepped in to the wing.
We knew what to expect from Aylesford - good rucking and mauling, combined with some fast
backs, and they didn't disappoint! Our game plan was to get the ball wide as quickly as possible - but for EVERYONE to
compete at the breakdown as though our lives depended on it.
The game started with lots of pressure from Aylesford in the SSB half, with lots of rucks and mauls. Aylesford have
been well-drilled and very successful at the breakdown for several years now whilst we are a relatively new side who are quickly
catching them up. All the pressure resulted in first blood to Aylesford with an unconverted try making it 0 - 5.
Following that score SSB redoubled their efforts, and our self-belief was
apparent. The pack was performing brilliantly in the scrums - you see what a difference concentrating at every scrum, and
getting our hit in makes? During the day we won several balls on the Aylesford put-in - well done girls! Shannon and Jess
did some fine interplay in attack down the right wing, but were held up. Jess then made a break down the centre of the pitch
and passed on to Izzy, who scored an excellent try, which she converted. 7 - 5 to SSB!
From their kick-off Aylesford again piled on the pressure into our half - but they were
by no means getting things all their own way and we were putting up stiff resistance and were winning possession from some
of the rucks and mauls. However, from a scrum won by Aylesford on their right-hand-side they put the ball along the line to
the other wing to score their second try: 7 - 10 to Aylesford.
Half-time; an opportunity for the coaches to re-emphasise that we really could win this game. Aylesford knew they
were in a game - and we just had to keep on working.
During
the second-half SSB again remained competitive, and the number of penalties awarded to us was a result of Aylesford being
so desperate to win the ball that they were holding on when they should have released, or straying offside at the breakdown.
The whole pack, in fact the whole team, contributed to countering the opposition rucks and mauls. Jordan was, as usual making
a fantastic nuisance of herself when the ball was in-hand and was usually the player who was odds-on to come out with the
ball from these maul situations.
Another great run
from Jess, who appeared to have a force-field around her as Aylesford players just couldn't get hold of her - and then
over the line and under the posts: 12 - 10 to SSB.
Shannon
was the victim of a high-tackle quite near the Aylesford line, which could have been serious, but she was able to play on.
Unfortunately we weren't able to take advantage of the penalty to add more points. Annie hurt her ankle and Phoebe stepped
in to her wing position.
The Aylesford "danger
girl", playing at 13 this week, scored the next try, which was converted, to make the score 12 - 17. Finally Aylesford
again played good thinking rugby to switch play from one side of the pitch to the other and got the ball in sufficient space
to be able to run it under the posts to score. The conversion was successful to make the final score 12 - 24.
One thing which shows you are all made of the right stuff was just how disappointed
everyone was at the final whistle. The good news is we can have another crack at them next March in the last league game of
the season. The Aylesford coaches were very complimentary about our play and would like to arrange a friendly sometime later
in the season, too. Natalie remarked that she was upset because "nothing she tried had worked". How wrong that is!
From a coaches point of view it is good that you girls can be so self-critical, because that is how your play will improve
- but from where we were standing, LOTS OF STUFF YOU TRIED CAME OFF TODAY.
All your coaches and parents and other supporters were extremely proud of every single one of you today. You did
not let yourselves down at all - you played out of your skins.
I looked back over some of our recent results against Aylesford, in April 2010 they beat us 46 - 0. And in the Worthing
Tens Festival at the end of last season they beat us 24 - 0 and 39 - 0, so we have come on in leaps and bounds to be in a
position where we were leading them at one point, and could certainly have won the game. I think their final try made the
result more flattering to them than was actually the case. We have made some great strides this season - and in tight games
like this we will learn much more about ourselves and how to win than we will from easier games.
Well done each and every one of you!
Match Report: Chris B Result: SSB 12 - Aylesford
Bulls 24 Team: Emily (capt), Kirsten, Vicky, Ellie, Jordan, Natalie, Ashleigh,
Izzy, Shannon, Hermione, Chloe, Annie, Jess, Phoebe. Solent
Sirens, Sunday 13th November
Another long trip, this time to Basingstoke RFC for our league fixture against
Solent Sirens. Due to Armistice Sunday and other commitments it was touch and go at one point whether we would have enough
players to make the fixture worthwhile. It seemed that Solent Sirens were also struggling so a postponement was suggested;
but in the end we had a total of 11 players and Sirens had about 15 players - so we played an 11-a-side game, with no number
8 or full-back. This meant that we did not have the luxury of any replacements, whereas Solent did, so everyone had to work
hard for the whole duration of the game. The game started with some good play by both sides, the game being played from one 25m to the other and back again
with committed rucking, mauling and tackling by both teams. The deadlock was finally broken when Shannon broke a tackle and
passed the ball back in to Izzy who ran over to score the first try, which she also converted. There was then another long period of play with control passing back
and forth between the teams as one ruck would be won, and the next one lost... SSB then got possession and worked Shannon
into an overlap for one of her trademark bursts down the wing to score. Izzy again converted to make it 14 -0. Emily went
on one of her customary rumbles, and offloaded to Jessie who was held up 5m out. Some great defence from the Sirens meant
that the half-time score remained at just 14 - 0. The first score of the second-half came from a typical Izzy burst, followed by an offload to Natalie (doing her usual
job of being just where she is needed in support) who drove it on. Finally it was taken over by Emily to score her third try
of the season (which is just one less than her Dad scored in club games in his whole career!). From the kick-off came what
will surely be our quickest score of the whole season: it was kicked straight down the middle to Jessie who did a perfect
catch and set off in a straight line. She made it all the way under the posts without a hand being laid on her. Lovely opportunistic
try! Jessie then got in on the act again with another try shortly afterwards. Hermione had hurt her ankle just before half-time but some magic taping by her Dad, Ed, meant that
when she got the chance to make breaks in the second-half, she rose to the challenge. She scored the next two tries in fairly
quick succession and helped to make tries for others. The forwards were doing a good job of providing ball for the backs to take advantage of with Emily and Vicky using
their strength to good effect and Jordan, as ever, being the most likely to come out with the ball in her hands from any maul
situation. Following Hermione's two
tries Jessie struck again and the final try was then scored by Shannon after the ball was transferred from Jordan to Hermione
to Natalie... Throughout the whole game
there was lots of fine interplay between the SSB backs and the forwards, something which is becoming a very good feature of
our play this season. It was particularly pleasing that a few of the players who had not had much game time with the County
team took advantage of the opportunity to play a full game for SSB and were all absolutely excellent today: Vicky did her
usual job to ensure that we win our own ball at the scrum and competed at the breakdown; Ellie was superb in the rucks and
mauls and made some good runs and links with the backs; Chloe had a really superb game at centre and her play made several
tries for other players; Kirsten displayed her versatility by stepping in at scrum-half and was her usual combative self and
an excellent link between forwards and backs. Thanks to a superb display of kicking by Izzy, who converted all but one of the 8 tries, the final score was 54 - 0. We should be proud of keeping a clean sheet, though it
was a much more closely contested game than the final scoreline would suggest and our defence was creaking on several occasions.
So respect to the Sirens for staying committed to the final whistle and making SSB work hard for this result. Team: Vicky, Ellie, Emily, Natalie, Jordan, Kirsten,
Izzy, Shannon, Hermione, Chloe, Jessie. Thanks
to all the players for coming along and playing so well today - and especially to all the parents and other rellies who came
along too. SSBU15s vs Oakmedians at Brighton 9th October 2011 We had an incredibly close game against
Oakmedians at their place last season, which I think ended 15 - 10. It was a very close game and because of that was one of
the tensest games of rugby that many spectators (and coaches!) had ever watched. Just before the end they had missed a conversion
right under our posts which would have taken them 12 - 10 up with seconds to go, then we scored a try as almost the last action
of the game to win. So we knew we were
in for a game and did not take Oaks lightly - though I was hoping for a less stressful time than the previous season! However
it was not to be... At the beginning
of the day we had 15 players lined up to play - which gave us a little leeway with a couple of subs available. However Ashleigh
unfortunately cried off ill in the morning and Chloe was crocked when she turned up, so we were a SH and a Centre short -
which meant that Annie and Phoebe would be pitched in for the whole game and didn't let us down! We had a bit of re-organising to do and put Ella in at scrum-half, where
she had never played before. She played really well, but obviously prefers the open spaces further out so I am guessing she
wont be fighting Ashleigh for the SH spot on a more permanent basis! The game started really well and after about 6 minutes Izzy scored to put us 5 - 0 up. About 15
minutes later there was more good support play and then an excellent break for the line by Sammy. She was brought down just
short - I think if she had stretched out she could have scored herself but she had the presence of mind to play the
ball back to Natalie who, like all good back-rows, was up in support, and Nat went over to score making us 10 - 0 up. Unfortunately
Sammy's efforts left her with a knee injury and she was unable to continue. (Get well soon Sammy - we need yer!) So for
the last few minutes of the first half and the whole of the second half we were down to 12 players against 13 Oaks girls.
This did not prevent us from scoring another try though - Hermione made a great break, but realising she had a couple of opponents
to beat shouted out "Help me!". This seemed to shock the Oaks players, one of whom Hermie handed-off as she turned
to off-load, and then requested help arrived in the shape of Izzy who took the pass from Hermione and ran 30 yards to score.
15 - 0 at half-time. At the start of
the second-half we were still half-asleep from the half-time break and Oaks went over without us hardly touching the ball
- 15 - 5. We woke up a little and started to compete again, though Oaks had now realised that with a player down in our backs
(we had to keep the full complement in the scrum as they were competing very well up front) they should run it at us as much
as possible. Apart from one satisfying spell in the second-half Oakmedians generally got the better of us at the breakdown.
(This is why we have been spending so much time practising our rucking both at SSB and during the County sessions... I know
it's boring, but it's essential. The Oaks coaches said that they had been totally out-rucked during their first game
of the season so had done lots of rucking drills - and it had paid off, I would say!) We were getting stretched in the backs
now as Oaks took advantage of their possession and superior numbers. They scored another two tries, which they converted to
go 19 - 15 ahead. This game was
now even more tense than the fixture at their place last year... they kept piling on the pressure - but we still kept competing
and showed a real never-say-die attitude. At one point they had a maul which they drove over our line, but they could not
get the ball down and we drove them back and cleared our lines. The pressure was too much! Then another moment of brilliance from Shannon to score a try to put
us 20 - 19 ahead. Izzy kept a cool-head and kicked the conversion - and another far too tense game of rugby against Oakmedians
ended in a narrow 22 - 19 victory. Afterwards the Oakmedians coach commented on how impressed he was with our offloading skills.
All the way through the game when people were held up in the tackle, or went into contact, they managed to get the ball away
to a supporting player - and to offload you must have a supporting player, so the support was excellent too! Keep that up. Thanks to the whole team for showing a real desire
to win that game and never giving up. I was really, really impressed and pleased that you managed to win this one - you should
be incredibly proud of yourselves. So thanks to the whole team: Vicky, Kirsten, Emily, Ellie, Jordan, Natalie, Ella, Izzy,
Sammy, Shannon, Annie, Phoebe and Hermione. And very special thanks from all of us to Fraser Kidman, Mirinda's Dad, who came out of refereeing
retirement with just half-an-hours notice before kick-off to ref the game for us. We really appreciated it - I promise never
to ask you again. (If anyone reading this knows any refs who would be up for reffing the odd game when we are struggling to
get official referees please let us know!)
Photos to follow!
SSB
U15s away at Ellingham and Ringwood 2nd October 2011
First of all thanks
for those who battled through the traffic on what must have been one of the busiest days of the year to try driving along
the South Coast...due to the unexpectedly glorious weather for the time of the year! Which presented us with our next problem
- playing 10 a side rugby on a full-sized pitch in sweltering heat - and with hardly a square foot of shade to shelter in!
Poor old Kirsten was ill that morning (talking to Huey on the Big White Telephone)
so we had to have a bit of a re-shuffle before we even started. So thanks to those who played in unfamiliar, or even unpopular
positions. That is what playing a team sport is all about - putting yourself out to help out your team mates, so ta to Nat
for playing in the front row, and for Hermione and Izzy for playing in the second row. I hope it wasn't too onerous, as
E and R wanted unopposed scrums because they had two inexperienced props (though staying kneeling on one knee whilst the scrum
went on was perhaps a bit TOO casual, Izzy! So thanks for getting into a pushing position for the subsequent scrums.
Last year E and R were our strongest rivals in the league and beat us in the
equivalent fixture (our only defeat in the league for the entire season) so we weren't quite sure what to expect this
year. It turned out that they had been weakened by many of their older girls moving up into the U18s or, in the case of Emily's
cousin Maddy, retiring in favour of other sports. Meanwhile we had a very strong squad - but, given the heat and the intensity
of 10-a-side rugby, not many subs. In fact, only 1!:
The
team played some fantastic rugby and scored a total of 11 tries spread between Izzy, Lily, Sammy, Ashleigh, Ella, Shannon
- and Emily who got her first ever try in a "proper" game. (If she scores at the same rate as her old man she is
probably due another four tries before she retires at age about 40!)
There was a shall we say "disputed" decision where Ellingham were awarded a try - but well done everyone
for sticking to the task in hand and staying focused on playing rugby.
Shannon unfortunately injured her wrist after a superb 50 yard run down the wing which looked like a certain try,
but she was stopped in her tracks by a determined tackle. Hope you are OK now!
I was pleased to see the way we intelligently swapped the ball around to avoid the side of the pitch where the opposition
were concentrated, and there was some fantastic support play throughout.
Natalie did some fantastic work at the breakdown to try and snaffle the ball off the opposition - thanks for
listening at training Nat and doing what your coaches want you to do. Jordan did some of her trademark steals of the ball
at the maul followed by a determined run, and the whole pack drove the opposition back several times to gain the scrum put-in
when the ball was trapped and he opposition couldn't get it out. And it was great to see our props Vicky and Emily going
forward to commit the opposition and then offloading to our speed merchants.
Also well done to everyone for NOT throwing the ball away at the breakdown situation - something which we definitely
need to get out of our game.
The whole team was keen
to get on the ball and in terms of league points it was all over by half-time as we had exceeded 40 points by holding a 41-5
lead.
In the second-half the effects of the sun, and
lack of sleep (due to those teenage "sleep-overs" where very little sleeping is done) meant that some players were
begging for me to persuade the opposition to call it a day - but having driven all that way getting a full game of rugby was
a better idea I think! The game ended 65 - 15, which was 11 tries and 5 conversions from Izzy. So a BIG thank you to
everyone for turning up and playing such fantastic rugby. That gave us a fantastic start to our league campaign.
Team:
Vicky, Natalie, Emily, Jordan, Hermione, Ashleigh,
Izzy, Lily, Shannon, Sammy, Ella. Let's carry on the good work at home against
Oakmedians this coming Sunday.
|
