On a lovely mid-March afternoon, perfectly timed between spells of freezing cold and stormy winds, eight of our girls were hosted by OAs in what the coaches expected to a tasty match. We had beaten OAs a few times before but they had played very well on our last meeting and take the win, so a close but fair match was expected.

Hitchin won the toss and captain Ailsa elected to receive. It was clear from the off that OAs had learnt how to put defensive pressure on and our girls weren't linking up or breaking through their lines as effectively as they had expected. Unfortunately for OAs though, they had wound up Eleanor who got hold of the ball and went on one of her classic crashing runs to score the first try. Our second try was not long in the waiting, though a lot of effort was still needed for Ailsa to get over the line with half their team hanging on to her. The girls weren't linking up or winning the breakdowns (why are they so interesting to look at?!) but sheer strength and determination had got them in front so far. OAs better ruck speed and agression in defense started to pay off as they turned us over and a few hard runs netted them their first try. With their heads now up, they attacked hard and our girls started slipping off tackles (grrr) and OAs put another two tries in with some excellent passing and driving. This only further wound Eleanor up, who went on another scything run and scored in the corner, followed by one from Flo after some good linking up and passing down the line to find the space. OAs saw the first half out with another two well won tries and the score at half-time was 5-4 to OAs; a cracking half.

A little bit of honesty from the coaches, and more importantly the players themselves, at the break seemed to give our girls the gee-up they needed. The second half, while still entertaining, was a lot more one-sided, with Hitchin putting seven tries on OAs. Most satisfying was the way in which these were created; less about singular brilliance than a whole team effort with great passing to keep the ball alive and far better ruck speed to win the ball at the breakdown. Moments of note were: Bella who decided to go down the blindside from a scrum, to cries of "not that way" from her teammates. Thankfully they were wrong as she used her strength to drive over the line; Georgia's superb drive down the middle, through their line and a huge reach to dot the ball down over the line with most of their players hanging on to her; and Eleanor's transformation into a Fijian, crashing through defensive lines with the ball in one hand while the other one swatted defenders away like flies.

So a great result for our U12s against a side that had tested them before and proved hard to better in the first half. A lot of excellent performances, including Eleanor stepping up vocally to point out what her team needed to do better, Bella putting her incredible strength-to-weight ratio to great use, Isabella being at the ruck 1st on most occasions and Sophie for very nearly bagging her first try, if not for a drop forward just before it was grounded. Hog of the Week goes to Georgia however for playing her role at scrum-half so well, always getting the ball out quickly when the forwards won the ball, putting in some excellent try-saving tackles and running hard with ball in hand, culminating in her try in the 2nd half. Keep it up Georgia!