New Year New Win for U13 Girls

The u13s travelled to Bedford on Sunday for their first outing since the Christmas break. They played a mixed team made up of Datchworth, Royston and St Neots. The big question was what effect the break would have upon the rich run of form the girls had enjoyed before Christmas? In short, the answer was none whatsoever. Scoring 17 to the opposition’s 4, with the 4 coming towards the end of the game, takes some doing.
The squad was Mimi (captain), Evie, Hollie, Eva, Hattie, Ella, Madeleine, Amelie, Freyja and Nancy. 4 girls from Bedford completed the squad and acquitted themselves well.
Olivia also turned out for a barbarians team in the u11s and as ever made her presence felt with some quality play.
Olney kicked off the u13s game but misjudged the wind, the kick going out on the full. The opposition chose a rekick which was chased hard. After a couple of minutes pressure we snaffled the ball, put Eva into space and the afterburners did the rest. The first of 6 for the flying wing during the match. Mimi, who had an excellent game as skipper followed up shortly afterwards dragging two would be tacklers over the line. Hollie then scored the first of her two, with Eva and Mimi completing the scoring to leave the first quarter 5-0. The opposition were in for a hard day at the office but in the spirit of the game we offered to mix things up. To their credit they decided to stick together and despite shipping a few tries got their reward later. There were some excellent runners in the team and, contrary to the score, some good tacklers. They had an impressive hooker who gave Ella her first real challenge of the season. Sporting her new haircut Ella rose to the occasion however and added to her all round game running strongly and hitting hard. Hollie, in addition to her try scoring, ate up the ground and tackled like a demon as ever.
The second quarter saw Olney add another five tries with Amalia from Bedford putting in a scorcher. Evie, Eva and Hattie also crossed, Hattie taking an unusually long time to open her account. This was probably due to her putting in an immense shift in defence man marking (girl marking?) the strong running opposition skipper. Amelie continued to progress rapidly sporting her sponsored shirt for the first time, taking the ball in well and showing strong tackle technique.
The second half saw more of the same including a brace from Eva, scoring the first with pace. For the second she chased the kickoff, arrived to see the catcher chuck out a loose pass to her and repeated the dose. Strangely this was the second of these in the game, with Hollie also arriving at the tackle to catch a panic pass from the acting scrum half and ghost home. Hattie added to her tally as well, the latter finishing off a comeback by the opposition. Fittingly the game finished with an Eva try.
This was a full 12 a-side game on a smallish pitch so for an outside back to score so freely showed serious wheels and skill. That said, in every rugby match for a winger to play the piano the pack have to shift it around. The honour of building the platform fell to Nancy and Freyja, both at the younger end of the team, who made serious yards in midfield against a bigger set of forwards and put us on the front foot ruck-wise. An orchestra needs a conductor and scrum half Evie, who seems to have added a step and a spin pass to her repertoire over the holidays bossed the midfield. Last but not least Madeleine, for once not the smallest on the field, added some real grit and pace in the traffic, always looking to open the door and put a team mate through.
An easy win? No, but a convincing one to put away an opposition team that although playing together for the first time had some really quality players. The Olney girls continue to play for each other and develop their game, with some tough local derbies and festivals over the next few weeks.