Olney Ladies Vs Hitchin

Olney ladies headed to Hitchin on Sunday for a preseason friendly and with some new faces in the team and players coming back from injury it was a great opportunity to try some different playing positions and combinations before the league starts next week.

The first 10 minutes of the quarter involved a lot of attacking pressure from Hitchin which Olney managed to absorb until Hitchin finally got through for the 1st try of the game (5-0).

Olney came straight back at them and with some great work from the forwards the ball went through the backs hands finishing with a brilliant run from Hollie Fraser handing off a couple of tackles to score under the posts (5-7).

Some ill-discipline from the Olney girls led to a number of penalties allowing Hitchin to increase the pressure on the Olney defence and despite some great tackles from Charlotte Denny and Hollie Fraser Hitchin broke the line to go over for a try to retake the lead (10-7). This pressure continued with 2 more tries before some great passages of play resulted in some strong runs from the backs with Hollie breaking the defensive line twice more to dot down under the posts and bring the score to within a point (20-19).
With some great pressure from the Olney forwards Hitchin bundled their lineout and Lianne O’Reilly pounced on the ball for a try to retake the lead (20-24).

Olney piled on the pressure to increase their lead with a great penalty move, a brilliant run from Erin Garvey who broke several tackles before she was finally brought down 5 metres from the line, some great forward running from Kristianne Gray, Jen Micklewright and Connie Spoor, and an interception from Jakki McCone but unfortunately Olney couldn’t turn this pressure into points.
A couple of breaks from Hitchin resulted in tries despite the great cover tackling from Ellie Fletcher and the rest of the back line and the game ended 40-24.