Having had two league matches cancelled, the South-East Blues (comprising u18 girls from Sevenoaks, Old Colfe’s and Tunbridge Wells) were very keen to get on the pitch to start the competitive season. So a last minute invitation from Guildfordians to play in their 10s festival was very welcome, as was the glorious afternoon sunshine.
The first thing the coaches – and the girls - noticed was that all the pitches for the tournament had a quite a significant slope which made different halves more important.
The festival started against Havant, who were looking very strong warming up. Iona got the match underway with a great kick, with Heather winning the ball at the breakdown, passing inside to Izzy for the first score. Iona scored the second by catching their return kick and running straight through to score under the posts. The third try came from smooth passing down a great attacking line with Joan going in on the wing. Izzy jackalled successfully to pass to Laura for Iona to score the fourth which took us to half time. In the second half, Laura, Annie and Bella scored again for the Blues to win the match seven tries to nil (there were no conversions at this tournament).
The second match was against Heathfield with four of our girls kindly volunteering to play for Havant who were down on numbers after injuries. The Blues did a lot of running downhill in the first half building momentum with quick work at the breakdown by Jocelyn. Iona, Laura (twice) and Heather all scored to make the lead four tries to nil at half time. Heathfield picked up in the second half (their turn to run downhill) and scored two in quick succession, before Bella ran uphill to make the final score five tries to two
The third game against Guildfordians was a step up in intensity. The hosts ran through to touch down from the kick off running uphill, but the Blues girls buckled down and evened the score just before half time, with Lucy going in on the corner (narrowly avoiding an oblivious passer-by who had wandered onto the pitch!). The second half was started by Iona gathering the kick, kicking back and successfully picking up her own kick which went out to Joan to score in the corner. Guildfordians retaliated by scoring from the kick off themselves, running straight down the hill into the corner. Their fast winger completed the win for them by scoring in the last seconds to leave the final score three tries to two.
As second in the group, the semi-final was played against the winners of pool B, a Barbarian’s side formed mostly of Trojans from Hampshire. It was a step up again and very even with much hard work all over the pitch, particularly the defence on our try line. The first half ended scoreless. The girls were unlucky in the second half with a strong attacking position three metres out from the opposition line turned over, and then two late tries from the Barbars in quick succession (down the hill again).
Iona was very deservedly awarded Player of the Match for a superb performance with Joan receiving an honourable mention for strong running and try-saving tackles in defence.
The girls had a great day out (thank you to Paul, Richard and all the parents for making the journey) and gelled really well as a three-way team. It augurs well for our league matches which (hopefully) start next week.