Sunday 6th Jan 08

Basford U18's v Aylesford Bulls

This was the Basford girls first trip to the Aylesford Bulls, (near Maidstone), after arranging the fixture during the Rochford festival, where the Aylesford girls gave a good account of themselves.

The game was played 10 vs 10 due to lack of numbers, so there was plenty of space on the pitch for both sides to take advantage of. Aylesford Bulls kicked off, and despite this being the first game back after the long Christmas break, the Basford girls went straight onto the attack and applied the pressure down in the Aylesford 20m zone. A knock-on gave Aylesford a scrum but an impressive Basford pack won the ball and Frenchie opened the scoring with a run from 10m out. 0 – 5
From the restart, the Basford girls set the pattern for the whole game, and kept applying constant pressure on Aylesford. The next score came from a line-out and drive for Sarah ‘wing prop’ Carmen to score. 0 – 10
Again, Basford took the game to Aylesford and only some very stout defensive play kept Basford from scoring more – the next Basford attack was ‘held up’ but from the resulting 5m scrum Sophie ran off the back of the scrum to ground the ball. 0 – 15
The game was being played mostly in the Aylesford half, with Basford constantly looking threatening. A line-out 15m out demonstrated a training ground move where the ball was passed short, and a great interchange between Sarah C and Nat led to Nat scoring the next try. 0 – 20
Just before half time Nat scored her second of the game following a great move from the halfway line, which showed some excellent passing and support play. Sophie converted to make the halftime score. 0 – 27

I don’t know what the Aylesford coaches said to their girls at halftime, but they came out of the blocks like a rocket, and within a minute had scored a great breakaway try, which was duly converted 7 – 27
This seemed to spur the Basford girls on to better things, and Frenchie went over for her second try following a scrum 10m out. 7 – 32
This was quickly followed by another score – again by Frenchie – following a great run by Sophie and some good support play. Sophie kicked the extras 7 – 39
The next score came from a passing move from 30m out, with good hands shown by a number of players that led to Kerry scoring her first try for the club – well done!! 7 – 44
Frenchie wasn’t finished for the day, and went over for her 4th try of the game (fantastic!!), again following an excellent passing move – Sophie kicked the conversion 7 – 51, and in the dying minutes, Fi showed she still had something left with a great 50m run to score her first and Basford’s 10th try of the game – brilliant! Sophie again kicked the extra points to make the final score 7 - 58

Many spectators said that this was one of the best displays of ‘team’ rugby that Basford have shown, with every member of the team being fully involved in the game – great forward plays, great running, great passing, and fantastic support for each other – well done!

Many thanks to everyone from Aylesford Bulls RFC for an excellent days rugby, and thanks especially to the Aylesford girls who played the game in great spirit – fantastic - and we hope to meet you again later in the season.

Final result: Aylesford Bulls RFC 7 Basford 58

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