U18's Season kicks off at Croydon RFC.

Its official the new season is here and the Basford girls kicked off in style last weekend.

Welcome to the first match report of the 2008-2009 season. Lets hope all the girls and everyone connected with the Basford squad has a fruitful and successful next 8(!) months.

Croydon was blessed with sunny weather for the first game of the season, and the first game between these two clubs. It was nice to see all the new girls, both those joining Basford for the first time, and also the girls who have made the jump from the U15’s into the U18’s. It was especially nice to welcome back Sarah McB in her first competitive game since her horrendous injury all those months ago.
It may have been the first game of the season, but the Basford girls, after being chained up for the last few months, were eager to ‘get stuck in’ and start playing ‘rugger’ again. The first 5 minutes were used to ease back into the swing of things, and shake the cobwebs off, with several unforced handling errors keeping the game fairly even, but after this Basford started to push forward.
Emily had the privilege of scoring the first try of the season, and this came off the back of a scrum won against the head, and a couple of passes. Emily also converted 0 - 7
Basford seem to take heart from the early score, and almost from the restart, India made a wonderful run from her own half, down the wing to score under the posts. Emily did the kicking honours again taking the score to 0 - 14.
Another try quickly followed, again scored by India following a quick free kick 0 - 19.
This seemed to spark a fight back from the Croydon girls and they started to push the Basford girls back, but Basford demonstrated their ability to defend and slammed the door shut.
After a period of play in the middle of the field ,the ball found its way to Rachel who made a great run from 40m out, taking the Croydon full back out with the great hand-off, to score. Emily again converted 0 - 26.
The Croydon girls again made a very spirited comeback and applied some great pressure, but Basford again showed their mettle, holding up the ball to save tries on 3 occasions.

After half time, and a few substitutions, the Basford girls again started to push forward, and Emily managed to break through the Croydon line to score her second try of the match 0 - 31.
The game moved end to end, with first Croydon attacking, then Basford applying the pressure - this culminated for Frankie (one of the twins) scoring for Basford in the corner. 0 - 36.
Basford were still up for more, and despite some excellent defending by the Croydon girls, Anna managed to cross the line to score following a great set play from the back of a Basford scrum. 0 - 41.
Nearing the end of the game, in an almost identical move off the back of another scrum, India went in for the final score of the game and her first hat trick of the season (by the way, if India’s dad reads this - he owes a jug!!) 0 - 46.

Final score: Croydon U18 0 - 46 Basford U18

Suffice to say, well done to all the girls from both Croydon and Basford - lets hope we all have a great season, and many thanks to all at Croydon RFC for their hospitality.

Just a quick footnote to say well done to all the ’younger’ girls for whom this was the first game with the ’big girls’ - I know some of you were very nervous, but you all came through with flying colours - excellent!

match report courtesy of Phil Fench