A wet and miserable day saw this season’s first clash between our arch rivals Old Redcliffians for the away leg of our local derby. Luckily the torrential rain lightened up in time for the warm up and stopped altogether in time for kick off.
Old Reds kicked off which saw us catch the ball and start our attacking play. We were running hard and fast from the word go, but a few unforced errors allowed Old Reds a few goes at attack. Due to our more than text book tackling technique from our midfield players, Old Reds were unable to make use of the ball, which eventually led to their speedster winger being tackled into touch.

Our line-outs started a little shaky, having lost our first one, but we were able to fight for the ball with some tremendous rucking and mauling from the forwards giving a high rate of turn-overs. A penalty conceded allowed Old Reds to try and attack once more by a quick tap, which gave them an extra 10 metres due to our slowness to retreat and being off side when they first ran. However, their running efforts were thwarted by the quick and hard defence of Carmen Etheridge and Bridget Sanger desperately defending our own 22.

After 20 minutes Collette Powell suffered an ankle injury, which led to her replacement. Marnie James, playing in her first game for us was very quick to fill Collette’s shoes with some back of the scrum pick ups, which saw her bashing through their defence like a rhino. Some quick forwards ball from Kate Price and Layla Barron running from the back of the rucks moved the ball another 20 metres down the field, with forward support in tow. Unfortunately some tough rucking meant that our forwards were all used up, so the ball went through the hands of the backs to make more ground. After some incessant attacking, Old Reds eventually faltered by giving away a penalty within their own 22. This saw Marnie the Rhino charge again from a tap and go penalty, being brought down just short of the line and the quick thinking of our newest player Carmen got our first points on the board as she picked up the ball from the back of the ruck and dived over to give us 5 points. Her first ever rugby try! Unfortunately it was too wide to allow us an easy conversion so the score lay at 5-0.

Needless to say, Old Reds were not happy and they came back at us with a lot of force, their defence around the rucks was very tight and they were very quick up onto our backs allowing little time to run or pass the ball. Even though Old Reds were gifted many scrums, our strong pack pushed them back on many occasions and even turned a few over.
Several times Old Reds managed to get the ball to their speedy right wing, but some good, swift team defence prevented her from making too much ground.
The score at half time was 5-0.

The second half proved a different challenge as their team realised there was no getting through our forwards as we were hammering down the pitch with some excellent mauling. However after making so much ground, our forwards were so exhausted by their efforts they could hardly see straight which meant that there was some slowness to the break downs. Their forwards began to clock on to our “kiwi” balls and were defending the fringes of the rucks in numbers. One turned over ball allowed their fly half to kick over the top and their support was so great that they were able to tackle Gabi Hopf our isolated full back, steal the ball from her and pass it out to score their first try. They converted. The score was 5-7.
We were straight back at them from the next kick off, which meant that they really struggled to get out of their own half for a long period of time. Several passages of play saw us edging into their 22 zone. Again some fumbling gave them the ball back, but they were still unable to break our defensive line.
Spirits were still high by this point and our backs were awarded by some good attacking play and decision making by winger Sarah Jewell who took no end of contact and still managed to get back up.

Unfortunately, they were very quick to capitalise on one dropped ball and with an overlap out left they put the ball through the hands to their nifty winger who ran from behind the half way line and touched down for their second try. Again it was converted making the score 5-14. With only ten minutes remaining, we needed to score twice.
After too many knocks and bumps Sarah Jewell came off the field to a round of applause and was replaced by our new player Hayley Evans, who was straight into the action.
This late on in the game, legs were tired and lungs were burning, but with our heads up we chased the kick off with Carmen Etheridge putting in the first tackle. One of many big hits she had put in during the game, particularly on the blind side of the scrum.

We now camped in their half for the rest of the game, winning ball and continuing phase after phase. Again Old Reds made the mistake of killing the ball in the ruck giving us a penalty in their 22. We kicked for a lineout, which we did win, but the ball fell at scrum half Lucy Bowering’s feet and she had no choice, but to pick up and run herself, which she had previously done many times. This again saw some great phases of play.
Another penalty from Old Reds saw Lucy take quick ball again and due to Old Reds slowness to retreat, we were given another 10 metres.The ball went to Marnie who didn’t fail to deliver by making another few metres; a quick ruck saw Lucy pick up the ball and run, but their close defence by the rucks meant she was unable to make ground alone.

Our forwards all piled in and some great body positions from Jess Bouyamourn and Helen Buckley, with vocal control from Helen Nicholson saw the maul creep over the line and Lucy to touch down. (In our opinion). However the ref claimed it was held up and called for a 5 metre scrum.
Unfortunately a dropped ball allowed Old Reds some relief as they were awarded a scrum.
Despite their obvious weight advantage in their pack, our scrimmaging skill allowed another turn over after several of their put in’s saw them stumbling backwards. Our number 8 Marnie, was quick to spot the ball at her feet and took it blind for another battering run. Some quick rucking and support from winger Hayley secured the ball for another few passages of play and eventually Marnie tumbled over the line for our second try of the game. Again the try was too wide for full back Gabi to convert.
Score 10-14 with only a few minutes remaining.

A swap around in the backs brought Hayley to inside centre and brought the backs back into the game with some good lines of running and breaking of the gain line.
Unfortunately our efforts were not enough during the last five minutes which Helen Buckley described as feeling “like death”, and the score line finished 10-14.

Very upsetting for a team that looked the better side on the field and wanted to win so badly.
A Stirling performance from all with a score that doesn’t reflect the skill, stamina, pace and heart that we showed on the day.

A special mention goes out to Marnie & Hayley who were playing their first match for us. They both made a huge difference to our game and gave 100%. Welcome to the team girls.

Players of the match

Sarah (Precious) Jewell: For her diligent work out wide, good handling, great rucking and getting stuck in pretty much every where!

Carmen Etheridge: for looking like a pro in only her second match, scoring her first try, putting in some great tackles blind off the scrum and in open play and for attacking fearlessly.

Written by Beth Clayton