u15 girls go BOOM !!

The u15 Pulborough girls took an excellent win up at Sutton & Epsom at the weekend. Not perfect by any stretch, but notable for a number of reasons.

The Sutton girls got off to an excellent start. Having looked a little light in their warm-up, this suddenly looked like a ruse as they went hard into Pulborough, sending them into shock through a number of phases before busting a few half tackles to take the first try and conversion of the game. S&E dominated the first 5 minutes and the question was how would the Borough girls react - would we collapse, or could they pull themselves together?

Well the scoreline provides the answer, but the 'how' comes in stages.

Firstly it needed some leadership, an Amazonian, to get the girls on the front foot, and Sam (green hair an' all), fitted the bill perfectly, getting the team and the touchline in a stir with a bull-dozing run for about 30 yards. This provided the space we needed and a platform for some more structured work by the girls, which is what we came for.

Amy at 9 and Lauren at 10 started to clear their channels and we started to move the ball around. As we did so the result started to look a little more predictable, with some good passing eventually finding the hands of Aliya who pulled in a try for Pulborough after a couple of well aimed hand-offs.

Rather than getting into tit-for-tat scoring though, the girls brought their best asset to the game, which was a fast defensive line speed that somewhat choked off the rest of the S&E game. They had some good skills, but all the Pulborough girls were up on them so quickly it was impossible for them to find space.

Leading the defence in title and spirit was Rosebud, who put the jeepers up all, and will certainly be remembered by both teams for one excellent and high impact tackle towards the end of the game.

Amid all this the forwards put in a great performance. Cally did brilliantly to step in and prop, Niamh was in the thick of each maul, while Imogen had a huge hooking-game, winning the ball successfully while our unfamiliar scrum went backwards. Sam continued to put the frighteners up everyone with her runs, while captain Harriet gave a masterclass around the ruck.

So the defence was huge and as a result we spent most of the game in the opposition half. Legs Lauren was tackling everything that moved, saving them from being tackled by Rosebud who could ruck over.

Jas and Carla both had a fantastic game on their wings - tackling strongly anything that looked like it was testing our width, while making powerful runs that wooed the crowd, hand-offs from Jas being a highlight, the try from Cannonball Carla being another.

Our backs movement was another focus for the day, and despite some iffy handling at times, the rhythm and structure was there, led admirably by Amy at 9, and each time we moved it we looked like a breakaway. More passing accuracy and an earlier pass will polish it.

Our second try from Legs Lauren came from multiple phases shifting around the backs. Converted by Rosebud. Cannonball Carla took the third try with her mighty break in the centre - something I know we are going to see a lot of it future.

Finally Rosebud ignored the orders to go wide and punched her very own hole through S&E to take her own try, which she promptly converted, adding a further two points to why I would name her player of the day.

So great stuff; firstly for so quickly pulling it together and turning the game around. Fantastic defensive line speed and tackling, and good backs distribution. A good afternoons work, although we'll need to work on the development points (like the tackler contesting the ball after the tackle) to show our best in the upcoming festivals