Another cold, blustery (albeit dry) Sunday, the U13’s were presented with an immediate opportunity to avenge last week’s only defeat in the Kent Waterfall tournament with a friendly against Old Colfeians played on the OC’s First team pitch. And how they rose to this challenge!
Pre Match Training
The girls joined the Old Colfeians U18 and U13 for a pre-match warm up, very much needed as the early sunshine had disappeared and the wind strong enough to blow the posts backwards! It was also great to see Vicky Fleetwood (England / Saracens RFC) leading elements of the warm up.
1st Half
OC’s were made up of a combination of OC’s and Dartford Valley girls. Despite this and being at Home, Oaks had more players so Georgia switched to start on the opposition.
Oaks made a good start. First Imogen ran strongly down the right wing, before the ball was switched to the left with Erin setting off towards half way only for a knock on in the tackle to hand possession to OC’s.
Honours at the first scrum went to Oaks taking the ball against an OC put in. However, another handling error handed possession back to OC. With this possession, OC’s were able to build early pressure but, Oaks showed some great defence and, just when OC’s appeared certain to score, Libby managed to push the OC player into touch.
Maddie then ran strongly out of defence but, excellent rucking from OC allowed them to regain possession and eventually their pressure resulted in the first try of the game.
However, Oaks responded well to this and, growing in confidence, started to put together some good attacking plays. Vivian, who had a couple of great runs and showed real pace, came closest to equalising in the first half running half the length of the pitch only to be pushed into touch as the try line beckoned! Better luck next week Vivian.
Just before the end of the first half, there was confusion amongst the spectators as Jamie (Oaks captain) left her wing to speak to the referee just as the OC’s were about to put in at a scrum. However, the reasoning soon became clear, as Georgia was told to switch sides (turns out OC’s had been playing with an extra player!).
2nd Half
Libby caught the ball from the kick off, passing to Grace who powered forward. This was followed by a strong run from Eleanor only for her pass to be intercepted by an offside OC player. From the proceeding penalty, Heidi set off right into the middle of the opposition. Undeterred by the number of OC players in front of her, she appeared to simply skip over the attempted tackles, running clear to score the equaliser!
Oaks kicked the restart but, a broken follow up allowed OC’s to slip the ball around the Oaks challengers and a scorching run from the OC winger put them in the lead again.
A strong kick off by OC’s saw the ball bouncing dangerously toward the Oaks try line but, calm under pressure, Imogen set off out of defence at pace and with the help of some deft side steps, took the ball up to half way. The ball was recycled well but, OC regained possession through strong rucking at the next breakdown and it looked as this would nullify Oaks attempts to get the equaliser.
Then came the key moment of the game. Driving clean over the ball and with no opposition players now contesting the ball, Libby picked it up and sprinted towards the OC try line, powering over despite the attention of several OC players, to equalise again for Oaks!
Overall Thoughts
Taking heed of the advice from their coaches last week, Oaks pressure in defence was the key difference today. There were some particularly strong individual performances from Libby, Imogen, Eleanor and Chloe but, it was the collective effort of the team that paid real dividends, disrupting the OC’s game plan. It was also good to see Oaks rucking, a key facet of OC’s game, improve throughout the game.
Well done also to Jamie. Great to see her growing into the captain’s role. After getting the girls into a team huddle at the start, she spoke to the ref to clarify his interpretation of the ruck and later pointed out the numbers error.
Oaks were well worth the draw, an excellent bounce back from last week (and perhaps even a moral victory given the player imbalance in the first half). Well done girls!