U18 Girls off to a fine start in the National Cup

On Sunday 6th November, Loughborough, Market Harborough & Oakham travelled to Melbourne to play their first Pool game in the Girls U18s National Cup. Under the banner of the LHO Cluster and with a good squad size, 2 players were loaned to Melbourne in order that a full 15-a-side game could be played. Special thanks to Jordan Snow, Caitlin Haresign, Sabine Brewster & Cassie Holyoak for nobly helping out their Opposition.

The game got off to a fine start, as LHO confidently collected the ball and fed it to Hollie Bawden whose strong running was too much for the Melbourne defence. In fact, Hollie went on to score 3 excellent tries in quick succession, following excellent recycling and strong running from the whole team. The LHO Forwards continued to dominate in the loose and it was the turn of Gina Watson to crash over the line under the posts, despite having to ‘side-step’ the referee. Phoebe Andrews secured her 3rd conversion to take the score to 26-0 to the Visitors.

Melbourne then managed to apply some pressure after the re-start and for the first time LHO found themselves defending. After initially being prevented from crossing LHO's line, Melbourne successfully recycled the ball and scored their first points of the game. From the kick-off, LHO resumed their attacking play and, following good ball retention, Cassie found a gap and used her speed to score.

LHO were then very unlucky to find themselves reduced to 14 players, as a yellow card was issued for dangerous play, although it looked as though the tackler had charged into the ‘offending’ elbow. Melbourne took full advantage and scored again to reduce to deficit to 10-31.

Although it was only the 2nd time this Season that this group of girls had played together, it was great to see the supporting play that was displayed. It was this excellent supporting play that lead to the next 2 tries, scored by Ellen Ramsbottom and Hannah West. Phoebe’s conversion took the score at Half Time to 10-43.

With a number of Melbourne injuries, the teams were reduced to 12-a-side in the 2nd Half. The additional space was put to good use by LHO, with Tia Rich, Lily Perrin + Phoebe all adding their names to the try count following strong individual runs. Gina took charge of the kicking tee and scored her first of 2 conversions.

After some encouragement from the side-line to move the ball wide, the Girls showed an excellent display of expansive running. This resulted in a strong finish to the game with Caitlin scoring a brace of tries and Ellen scoring the team’s 13th try of the day. Gina’s conversion brought the game to a conclusion, with the final score 77-10 to the Visitors.

Congratulations to all for a great team display from the whole squad (see list below). To see 9 separate scorers on the day is certainly very encouraging. I for one am very much looking forward to the next Cup game, which is away at Ashfield on Sun 13th November.

Squad : Phoebe Andrews, Hollie Bawden, Sabine Brewster, Isabella Cranwell, Lucy Gardner, Caitlin Haresign, Ella Herbert, Cassie Holyoak, Lily Perrin, Jasmine Poole, Ellen Ramsbottom, Tia Rich, Jordan Snow, Rose Smith (captain), Gina Watson, Hannah West, Eleanor Wilkinson.