Olney U13 Girls v Buckingham

The girls travelled to Buckingham on Sunday, playing the team who had ended their winning run the previous week in a narrow 4-3 defeat. The team was Mimi (captain), Hollie, Bethany, Evie, Eva, Ella, Hattie, Nancy, Freyja, Madeleine and Amelie.
First of all, credit to Amelie who followed up her debut last week with a good performance. It’s not easy to come into a team that’s flying as a new player, but she showed good positional sense, bravery and very solid tackle technique. An excellent start.
We played four quarters of ten minutes and Buckingham came out fighting, pinning Olney back on a small pitch. Our defence, especially line speed, was great and we stemmed the tide. Olney moved up the pitch and Hattie, taking a crash ball, smashed through the defence to open the scoring. Hattie was again a live wire on Sunday, rucking, tackling and hammering the ball up to get her team onto the front foot. The girls got their offloading game working again and moved the ball around. Eva was given a sniff of the outside which was all she needed, burning the defence for pace and crossing for 2-0. Buckingham are a quality team, however, and pegged one back via route 1 and some weak tackling. The comeback was shortlived when Nancy scored the try of the game. Bringing it out of defence she drove through her opposite number, saw space and put an almighty step on the fullback. This was the opening shot in a performance that made her the joint girl of the match. She was a dynamo in the first three quarters, first to most of the play and linking well, before taking a knock making yet another excellent tackle and sitting out the end of the game.
The second quarter was a more even affair, with Buckingham playing smart one out rugby. Our rucking fell off slightly and we conceded after three minutes. It was here that the balance of play was decisively influenced by Hollie, who was joint girl of the match. She rucked and handled well, but her cover tackling was immaculate. Textbook technique and power, she made at least ten huge interventions in midfield to break up attacks. Olney came back into the game and Freyja created space on several occasions with determined running. Her best of these saw her beat two defenders and open the door, flipping the ball to Hattie to power over for her second. Bethany created space on several occasions and protected our outside well.
As seems to be the pattern, persistent offloading saw the dam break in the third quarter. That said, we conceded early as a tricky kick off was mishandled and scooped up to score by the opposition. Buckingham also scored a well worked forward move. But this section of the game belonged to Olney’s backs. Hattie made a break, the ball was popped off the ground to Eva who sniffed the smallest gap on the outside and took it. The dose was repeated a couple of minutes later. Mimi, having pulled the strings until then and been double marked for most of the game, saw daylight and stepped through the gap to score pursued by half of Buckingham. Eva finished the half as she had begun, seeing space and burning off the outside backs to score.
The final quarter was notable for the try that never was. Madeleine infiltrated the opposition midfield and ripped/intercepted her opposite number. A desperate chase to the line ensued, with Buckingham in full cry behind her. As she crossed the line a despairing tackle from behind jarred the ball from her hands to rob her of the score. This would’ve been the icing on another great all round performance. The match was finished by another Hattie try, another move through hands launching her into the defensive line from where she proved unstoppable. Final score 9-4 to Olney.
Evie had another excellent game at scrum half, her ability to ride the tackle and get the ball away providing a reliable platform. Her support play and strong running also laid the foundation for many breaks. Her partner in crime at hooker, Ella, once more won more than her share of the ball and continued to contribute around the park with ball in hand.
Another great day at the office for the girls who finish the first half of the season at Bletchley on Sunday. The quality of their offloading game is worth watching and the second part of the rugby year promises much.