U15's

Sunday 9th Dec 07.

With a squad depleted by injury and illness, the girls travelled over to Saracens on sunday to play against Saracens, Welwyn and Hertford.
The aim behind the fixture was to give the coaches a final look at the girls before selection for Regional trials.
Each team seemed to be in the same position with girls missing for one reason or another.
Given the numbers available it was decided to play 10's Rugby.

With the weather wet, windy and an extremely heavy pitch to play on, the girls opened the day with a game against Hertford.
Having met earlier in the season with Basford coming out on top, confidence was high amongst the girls.
From the off, the basford girls went on the offensive with the forwards controlling the game in the middle of the park.
Some strong tackling from Ellie, Meg Lucie and Frances kept the Hertford forwards on the back foot which allowed the backs to play some neat passing rugby to open the scoring through Jessica.
As the game went on the Basford girls made their dominance pay with some deft handling on the 5m line which following a nicely weighted pass gave Meg the chance to go over in the corner.
Not wanting to be outdone, Frances collected a pass on the other wing shortly after and crashed over for the 3rd try.
Turning round at 15-0 the girls immediately went on the attack again which was quickly rewarded with a try for Olivia who minutes later went over again for her second.
The final try fell to Ellie who fully deserved her try after the work she had put in in keeping the Hertford forwards quiet.
the only conversion of the game was made by Yas.
Final score 32-0

In the 2nd game the girls came up against Welwyn, and again having beaten them earlier in the season at the Rochford Festival, the girls were ready to take the game to their opponents.
Whilst the game was a lot tighter than the first one, the forwards were keeping their counterparts quiet which allowed the backs freedom to run at the Welwyn line.
Abbie opened the scoring with a well worked try under the posts to give Maddy an easy shot at the conversion, which she calmly put away.
Shortly after Ellie went over after some strong defensive tackling from Welwyn looked like they might hold the girls at bay. Again Maddy was on hand to convert the kick.
A rare mistake from the pack saw them penalised for pushing too early in the scrum and from the resulting penalty Welwyn went over for their first try. Courtney duly converting the kick.
Turning round at 14-7 the girls again began to pressure the Welwyn defense and it wasnt long before Ellie went over for her 2nd try of the game. Maddy again made light work of the conversion.
with the minutes ticking away, some excelent play in moving the ball across the park gave the ball to Jessica W who evaded a couple of tackles to run in her try.
Unfortunately Maddies boot was on the wrong foot this time and the conversion went wide of the posts.
With the score nicely settled at 26-7 and with only a minute left on the clock, the Basford girls were penalised in a scrum and from the resulting penalty Welwyn went over for their 2nd try.
Final Score 26-12

The final game saw the girls play Saracens, and although they met on a couple of occasions last season, they had yet to meet this year.
Fully aware of the danger from the boot of Claire Shutler after the County meeting between Herts and Essex, the girls were intent on closing her down to restrict the damage she could cause.
With the forwards again putting in some big hits, it didnt take too long for the backs to open the scoring through Maddy, who duly converted her kick.
From the restart Lucie collected the ball and ran straight through the Sarries defence to go over under the posts,with Maddy stepping up to convert.
Amy who was playing her 1st competative game of Rugby in the front row was not going to be outdone by her more experienced team mates and made some excellent tackles and continually ran at the Sarries defence with ball in hand.
Just before half time Jessica W scored her 3rd try of the day , going over in the corner.
Turning round at 19-0 things were going according to plan.
Following some smart play in the centre, the ball was fed to Frances who seemed to forget that she was a 2nd row and went on a blinding run half the length of the pitch to go over for her 2nd try of the day.
Maddy presumably still shell shocked from seeing Frank run that far was too dazed to convert the kick.
As the game was drawing to its close, Jess Harris who has had a terrific season so far at Hooker raced clear to touch down.
Final score 29-0

But for two mistakes which gave away penalties close to the try line, the girls almost kept another clean sheet.

Congratulations to all the girls for some excellent performances out on the pitch.
It has certainly given Simon and Peter something to think about at Regional.