The South-East Blues began their league campaign in glorious autumn sunshine at Folkestone rugby club. Playing in the Tunbridge Wells strip, the Sevenoaks/Old Colfe’s/Tunbridge Wells cluster made the long journey to play against the Aylesford/Folkestone cluster.
The coaches agreed to play four quarters, and the Blues started strongly, with Belle scoring after 4 minutes and Iona after 5 (and converting her own try). Izzy caught the third restart kick and passed it inside to Lucy who galloped through the middle of the pitch, evading their backs to score on the left. Belle ended a strong quarter by scoring from a strong run down the right wing.
In the second quarter, their scrum half went off injured and Jocelyn kindly volunteered to play for the opposition, and playing very honestly, set them up for a fine try under the posts, making the score 7-22. The third quarter was much more tense with hard defensive work by both sides. We turned over an attacking scrum but we didn’t manage to capitalise; their scrum half took a quick penalty from 10m out and ran through to score their second, to end the quarter 12-22.
Laura caught the restart kick at the beginning of the fourth quarter and Izzy stormed down the right- hand side but didn’t manage to go all the way. The ball came back to us deep in our half, and Iona ran 2/3rds of the pitch to score under the posts, converting her try again. The game ended with a final try by Belle running strongly into the left corner, making the final score 12-34.