Chippenham Girls U18 host Cleve Girls for their first match of the season

A tough start to the season but Chippenham show spirit and fight to the end

This was the first Game of the season for the U18 girls team with a lot of players coming up from last year’s U15s making this the first time that this team has played together. In contrast Cleve fielded a mature team with 4 games already under their belt making them a very strong opposition.
Chippenham kicked off to start the game and Cleve made a strong start, running in their first try, which was converted. Chippenham kicked off to Cleve and while deep in the Cleve half tuned the ball over. However, Cleve intercepted a pass and ran to score their 2nd try, also converted. A turnover by Cleve saw them passing out to their backs and another try from their backs in the corner, but no conversion.
Chippenham defended the next passage of play hard with some great tackles but Cleve were playing very well and passing wide to fast backs rewarded them with another try in the corner, but again no conversion.
Chippenham then enjoyed a good passage of play ending in a forwards drive over the line. Unfortunately, the ball was held up, but Chippenham won the penalty. Another great drive saw Grace over the line but unfortunately the ball was again held up. The scrum on 5m line was won by Chippenham, but an interception from Cleve took the ball out of danger.
After 2 or 3 passages of play Cleve scored and converted. Cleve scored a further 3 tries to finish off the first half, 53 - 0  
The second half followed in a similar vein with Cleve keeping up the pressure, however Chippenham never gave up and once again came close with a drive from a penalty on the 5m line.  One of many cracking tackles from Ellen denied Cleeve a try from a deep run from the Cleve backs, but over the course of the second half Cleve scored 5 tries bringing the final score to 86 – 0.
Chippenham girls fought hard to the end despite a very strong and tricky opposition, their resilience was applaudable and will stand by them as they gel as a team and progress through the season.

Team: Jessica Billett, Poppy Dall-occo, Oumou Diallo, Grace Dunford, Faith Gibbs, Abigail Heaney, Ellen Holder, Katie Howse, Sky Hurcombe, Orla Jones, Anya Lewis, Lucy Pugh, Jessica Richards, Megan Richards, Maddie Roberts, Mollie Russell, Holly Selman, Connie Strutt, Ella Wells.