A Mother’s Day fixture was always going to be a challenge to get numbers for, and with 17 players available it looked like it might be a tough 80 minutes. Worthing, however, were struggling even more and ultimately arrived with 12. Instead of taking the walkover, both teams were committed to ensuring that a contested game happened and the game began with 13 vs 12.

Streatham-Croydon are well aware of their strength in their outside backs and with the additional player in the back line it was imperative that the ball went wide early. Putting good pressure on Worthing from the kick off, the ball was turned over and put through the hands to winger Grace Moore who sliced through the defence for the first score. This would be the first of many for Grace, adding to her already sizeable tally this season, using her pace and power to cross the line 6 times.

Despite dropping flankers Streatham were powerful in the scrum, providing a good platform for clean ball for the backs. Sam Brown, having played a few development matches at fly-half, had an extremely assured performance in her first 1st team league game in this role. The Worthing 10 put her under a lot of pressure, but confident decision making and exceptional distribution allowed centre Helena Solomon to bring the ball to the line and ship it wide on many occasions, providing tries on the wing for Amy Allen and Steph Sanchez.

Taking advantage of the lack of flankers and the going-forward of the scrum, number 8 Mel Laidlaw-Anderson took the ball from the back of the scrum on multiple occasions, breaking the line more than once with her powerful running. Streatham demonstrated their improved support play, with scrum half Catherine Kingston running off her shoulder, passing in the tackle to outside centre Millie Ross, who popped the ball to Brown who ran in under the posts unopposed.

Having secured the bonus point, in the second half SCRFC dropped a player to match Worthing, but already on the front foot this didn’t stop points from coming. Ill-discipline at the breakdown gave Worthing the chance for some points, opting to kick a penalty from just outside the 22. The ball bounced off the posts, and was swiftly recovered by Solomon who ran it out of the danger zone. Valiant defence from the Worthing outside backs prevented a few easy run ins from breaks from Kat Tucker, Rosie Carr and Steph Sanchez, but continued support play enabled skipper Millie Ross to run in a second half hat-trick. Final score 97-0.

We would like to thank Worthing for making the trip despite struggling numbers and challenging us until the end, and wish you luck for the rest of the season.

Forward of the Match: Rosie Carr
Back of the Match: Samantha Brown
Scores: Grace Moore (6T), Amy Allen (1T), Sam Brown (1T), Steph Sanchez (2T), Mel Laidlaw-Anderson (1T), Millie Ross (3T), Dani Davies (1T, 11C).

Next match: Cup vs Crewe. Date tbc.