This was the Basford girls first game against Saracens for a few seasons and the girls were all looking forward to another competitive game. Due to road works the Saracens team were late to arrive and the initial kick off was delayed. This however fired the girls up and they hit the opposition hard from the off.
Saracens kicked off and as usual Basford immediately went on the offensive with their first attack leading to a try in the first 30 seconds after an excellent break by Frances Hughes. Saracens defended well, with some big tackles and some telling runs from deep from their forwards, but the Basford girls weren't in the mood for letting anyone across their line. The lead was further extended when Emily showed a turn of pace and ran in from 25m out to score.
Three minutes later, India seemed to burst through the Saracens defence from nowhere, and a run down the touchline saw her score in the corner.
This was quickly following by another well worked backs move that saw Frenchie score under the posts.
Saracens rallied from the restart and started to press Basford back into their own 20m but, again, Basford showed that they can defend with the best and managed to weather the storm with some great tackling by Kez, Sam, stumpy & Jenny. Before half time, Emily again crossed the Saracens line for her third try, born out of a forwards drive by MCB, Jemma and Natasha. The half was to finally finish with Mouse scoring her first U18's try beating two defenders with a deft side step.
Basford kicked off the second half, and Saracens again pressed forward with Basford defending their own line to give away a scrum in their 22- and things looked good for Saracens. Unfortunately, there must have been some sort of infringement within the scrum as the referee awarded a penalty to Basford - the ball was duly kicked in to touch and Basford were out on the attack again.
In a wonderful piece of skill Emily made a tackle on a Saracens girl, forcing her to spill the ball, which was picked up by India who went over to score her second. Emily was to score a few times again with a personal tally of 50 points. The final score of the match was provided by Jess Wilkins who made an excellent run beating three opponents. Final
result: Basford 75. Saracens 0.
Well done to both teams for sticking at it to the end to make a very entertaining game.
Player of the match: Jemma Sommers
Basford Team:
Sarah MCB (Capt)
Stumpy
Jemma
Frances
Siobhan
Jen
Natasha
Scottie
India
Sam
Shivvy
Mouse
Jess W
Keziah
Frenchie
Match report courtesy of Gavin
