Sun 24 Sep 2023, 14:00
The start of a new season always brings an interesting mix of excitement and nerves, and the first game for the Winscombe U14’s ladies' team was no different. A new combination of players and new rules for many meant that before kick off you could feel that nervous excitement among individual players. However, listening to the coaches and older players talk about what they wanted to do on the pitch you could see that the players took the pitch determined to play their best.
They faced a well-drilled and strong Hornets side and the game started with both teams making strong runs, competing for every ball, and defending resolutely. The first scrum and lineout for Winscombe were strong and provided a solid base from which to play, showing the training had paid off. The Hornets exerted some early pressure but only found excellent tackles from Winscombe with Ruby, Hattie, Florence T, Ffion, Anna, and Rosie S stopping some particularly dangerous drives from the Hornets. The pressure was realised when Kyla turned defence into attack with a great kick and chase which moved Winscombe deep into Hornets territory and after several phases of play saw Rosie S power over the line for the first try of the new season. The last action of the quarter saw Laura kick the first conversion of the year and Winscombe went in 7-0 up having weathered some strong attacking play from Hornets.
During the break captain Ffion called for quicker passing and early in the second quarter that plea was listened to and following excellent work from the backs, marshaled well by Olive D at scrum half, Ffion was able to break two tackles and score. Again, the conversion was good and Winscombe went 14-0 up. The second quarter was then highly competitive with rucks a regular battle ground and both sides defending resolutely. Of particular note were Holly and Rosie C’s ability to steal the ball and Lucy Tinker’s first tackle in a competitive match in which she stopped and drove back one of the Hornets best players in full flow. However, the final play saw an excellent break from the Hornets who scored a well-worked try and left the score 14-5 at half time.
The third quarter started very physically with both sides increasing their intensity in tackles, however, following several excellent driving runs from Anna you could see the Hornets tire. This allowed the Winscombe backs to spread the play and run more freely which culminated in an excellent run from Kyla, breaking two tackles to score. This seemed to galvanise the Winscombe backs who seemed to make yards with every run, despite determined defence from Hornets. Before the quarter was through Laura had managed to break several tired tackles to score with a slaloming run from the halfway line and Ffion added another try with a strong and well-timed run through the Hornets defence. Leaving the score at the end of the third quarter 31-5 to Winscombe.
With some rousing words from the coaches and several of the older girls ringing in their ears the Winscombe girls came out and played the final quarter with real control and purpose looking to run more and go through the phases against a tired opposition. This excellent teamwork allowed Winscombe to create gaps in the well-drilled Hornets defence and Laura ran in another two tries before the game was finished, leaving the result 45-5 to Winscombe.
Please enter your page detail here. This can be HTML or text. To edit click the first menu icon on the small HTML menu that appears when you click on this text. Please use the elements on the right if you wish to construct a richer page content with headers, images and layout grids.
