Scottish Emanuel vs Beccehamian

This Sunday saw the Beccehamian U18 girls travel to New Malden for the return cup fixture against Scottish Emanuel in the RFU Divisional Cup. It was a nervous and frantic start with neither side taking control for the first 10 minutes. SE had a large pack but the technical skill of the Beccs girls enabled them to hold their own. In the lineout the Beccs girls consistently won their own ball and disrupted the hosts, all thanks to Poppy and Olivia as lifters and Ella and Tatum as jumpers. The breakthrough finally came courtesy of Olivia powering over the line. Ellie stepped up and slotted over the extra points, with the first of her seven conversions for the day. Gradually the nerves faded and the girls got into their game. Off loads and quick ball saw some great touches such as Ella committing two of the opposition before offloading to Tatum for the first try for her hat-trick.
As the scoreboard ticked over, the confidence grew with all players, getting involved. Passing off the deck, well timed off loads and strong running enabled the girls to gain territory. However, lapses in concentration and the hosts speed and power at the breakdown soon put pressure on the Beccs defence, culminating in their try.
To their credit the Beccs girls picked themselves up from the re-start with strong running by Megan to link up with Carolina and Reana eventually allowing Reana to score on her debut in the corner.

HT 5-35

The second half started positively before a spate of penalties handed SE the initiative.
Strong defending ensued with big hits coming in from Cerys and Poppy. Despite the rising penalty count the Beccs girls kept their discipline and soon regained the momentum. Erin and Poppy deciding the run of play at the next scrum resulted in a classic No 8 pick-up, with Poppy beating two defenders to score.
Megan decided that it was time to score and with great turn of speed and footwork ran in two excellent tries. Ella also added her name to the score sheet before suffering a head injury causing her to leave the field.
Once again Ellie’s kicking consistency (7/9) saw the final score 5-59.

This puts Beccs top of their pool with one more match, against Sutton & Epsom, to come.

Tries: Olivia, Tatum (3), Reana, Poppy, Megan(2), Ella
Conversions: Ellie(7)

The team were: Olivia, Freddie, Cerys (capt) Poppy, Tatum, Ella, Erin, Ellie, Rachel, Reana, Carolina, Destiny, Zainab, Megan.

We'd like to thank Rachel for giving up her football match to play in only her second match; true commitment. Also, thanks to Carolina and Zainab, playing in their first U18’s match having moved from U15’s this season.
Many thanks to Destiny who endured endless traffic to make a cameo role.
Special thanks to Graham and Phil who coached, both invaluable as always.
A mention must go to Ryan (Reana’s brother) who usurped me as the girls favourite water boy.

Lastly, many thanks to Alan, Julia and the SE girls squad who were excellent hosts. We wish Amy a speedy recovery with her shoulder.