U13s Girls record famous victory

The u13s travelled to Old Northamptonians on Sunday, on the back of a narrow loss to Ampthill the week before. Again the squad was a good blend of 11 Olney girls and 4 from our partners Bedford. One of the many pleasing aspects for the coaches was the way the girls gelled into one unit. The squad was Mimi (captain), Eva, Ella, Bethany, Lily, Shelby, Evie, Evangeline, Annalisa, Hattie, Molly, Nancy, Gabriella, Freyja and Madeleine.
ONs are a strong girls club playing rugby in the right spirit. This was our third encounter with them this season, the first two being close games with ONs the winners. We travelled knowing that their two key threats were a strong running pack and a lightning quick wing.
Playing four quarters of 10 minutes we kicked off and had ONs under the cosh immediately. Pressure couldn’t be converted, however, and a couple of handling errors put Olney back into their own half. From there ONs built pressure and fed their wing who burned round the outside. It didn’t take the girls long to get back into the game, however. Excellent work from Ella at hooker to win one against the head led to the ball going wide. Mimi straightened the line and burst a tackle, put on the pace and left the full back for dead. Minutes later Eva repeated the dose, scything through midfield and stepping her marker to score in the corner. ONs then managed to pull one back through their pack on the whistle for the first quarter to end.
ONs came out hard in the second quarter and scored early to level the match. Some excellent work in the forwards by Evie maintained our ruck ball. Annalisa marshalled the pack well and kept movement forwards. The girls were guilty of some hesitancy at ruck time, but successfully held up attacking players in a maul on a couple of occasions. The teams exchanged tries with Eva repeating her touch line hugging run to keep things even.
The second half exploded into one of the best twenty minutes of rugby of the season. Newcomers Lily and Evangeline got into the action, closing down the midfield, no mean feat against a bigger team. ONs began to shuffle the ball across their line with little forward progress, inviting our defensive line up and in. The girls needed no second invitation and absolutely smashed into the tackle. Every opposition player had an Olney/Bedford player in their face immediately, often more than one. Shelby continued to let her play do the talking. Whenever a hit is needed or someone to take the ball out of pressure, Shelby’s the girl. Against the run of play, however, ONs scored. Cometh the hour, cometh the Molly however. Taking the coaching on board she drove through the tackle and hauled two defenders over the line. Nancy went close and made a last gasp tackle, ably assisted by Gabriella who is unrecognisable from a few weeks ago. She stretched her legs in attack in a couple of promising runs as well. Despite this ONs got back on the scoreboard as we kicked slightly too short and their winger paid us back with interest. That said, the girls had worked out this threat and double teamed her out of the game. Except...she cut loose on the wing, and rounded Bethany with the wide acres in front of her. Or so we thought. With a ninja like spring Bethany grabbed a handful of shirt and in an astonishing display of strength hauled her in. The cavalry arrived via Nancy and all was saved. Bethany also made some storming runs, her best game of the season by a mile.
Next up was another run from Mimi, who terrified the defence all day. She scored a great try under the posts, but the best was to come. From kick off Madeleine, smallest on the pitch, fielded the ball. Stepped one, then two. Drove through a tackle, saw space and pinned her ears back. Defenders chased but to no avail. A 50 metre try. Try of the season? Try of any season more like. Spectators danced for joy, hats were thrown in the air.
The game was now even stevens. Who would blink? In the end, there was only going to be one winner. Big hits jarred the ball out, Freyja made good yards as she had all day and Mimi did what she does, ghosting through to score. 7-6 the final score. Player of the match? Step forward Hattie, who played with a stone cold fury to force errors left and right. Excellent line speed and big tackles led to panic in the attack. She ran hard with the ball in hand and rucked vigorously. A truly massive performance that, given the quality of all the girls on the pitch, took some doing.
This was truly a performance to savour, but one given and received in the right spirit of rugby. It was an honour to be involved as a coach and a big shout to Shona and John from Bedford who were key in motivating the girls and passing on tactical tips.