National Cup

Sunday 24th Feb 08

Round 1 saw the Basford Girls pooled with London Irish, Welwyn Warriors and Reading.

Thanks should go first to Dave Mattthews and the staff at Camberley Rugby Club for hosting the days rugby.

Following the draw,Basford were first out on pitch one against London Irish.
This game saw both the good and the bad side of rugby. The good side being the passion that both teams put into trying to win the game. From the off neither team were going to give an inch, with the forwards from both teams being kept busy all game. turning round level at half time was probably a fair indication of how the game was going. However it was not long into the 2nd half when Irish got the break through with a well worked try down the right. The Basford girls rallied and continued to press to seek the score that would level the game. With around 5 mins to go a break again down the right allowed Alex Matthews to go over to make it 10-0. With the conversion going over the girls were looking at a 12-0 defeat but the never say die attitude from the girls saw them still trying to play the ball through hands to get some points back.Abbie came close in the dying seconds when a blinding run was stopped just short of the line when she was bundled into touch.
Final score 12-0 to London Irish.
The Bad side was the unsportsman like behaviour of certain members of the London Irish team who felt it neccessary to make jestures towards the Basford Parents and supporters on the sidelines during the game.Also the completely unneccessary follow through on Abbie Cook after she had been bundled into touch.
It may sound like sour grapes having been beaten, but nothing could be further from the truth, we have thoroughly enjoyed our encounters this season as both teams are tested to the limit and on balance London Irish deserve to be in the next round but the ungracious attitude of certain people leave a bad taste. Maybe its a follow on from the ungracious lobbying by the London Irish coach to have Basford removed from the competition before a ball was passed but this attitude from players to supporters has no place in the game.
All credit should go to those girls who apologised for their team mates behaviour after the game.
We wish London Irish all the best in the competition and look forward to playing them again soon.

In the second game the girls came up against Reading, who had just come off the back of a 0-0 draw with Welwyn.The girls quickly got into their stride and used their pace out on the wings to run in 6 tries with Maddy converting one kick.
Tries: Layla,Jess W(2),Lucie,Abbie, Alex.

The final game saw the girls up against our local rivals Welwyn. These games are always a cracking encounter as neither team wants to lose. Even though these girls play together as team mates at Regional level, there is a healthy rivalry at club and county level.
First blood was drawn by Basford when Abbie managed to evade a couple of tackles and do over to make it 5-0. As with our previous encounters, the forwards from both teams are always in the thick of it and yesterday was no exception. The Welwyn backs caused problems throughout for the Basford girls and only some last ditch tackles stopped Welwyn levelling the score.

Results:

London Irish 12 Basford 0
Welwyn 0 Reading 0
London Irish 31 Welwyn 7
Reading 0 Basford 32
London Irish 31 Reading 0
Basford 5 Welwyn 0

Pool Winners: London Irish:

Again thanks to Dave Matthews at London Irish, Malcolm and Janet at Reading and Peter and the girls at Welwyn.
A great day out.

Back to the grindstone next week with an away trip to Swaffham.