Our girls were nervous before their first league match down at Welwyn yesterday, and not just because they mistook Welwyn’s senior women’s league team as their opposition. Our matches against Welwyn are always tough encounters and the results can go either way, with both teams leaving everything out on the pitch.

We had the kick off and went deep into Welwyn’s half. It didn’t take long to see that this would be as close an encounter as previous games, with big tackles and hard rucking at the breakdown. We were tackling well but Welwyn were quicker to the breakdown and secured the ball well. After some hard fought yards, Welwyn managed to find space down our right wing and went in for their first try near the touch line. A good attempt at the conversion didn’t quite have enough distance.Our girls didn’t need their coaches to tell them how to get on top; they knew they needed to up their intensity.

After the re-start, Welwyn had a lot of time on the ball, and were in our half a lot, but they couldn’t break through due to us upping our speed to the breakdown and starting to win some rucks. We couldn’t quite penetrate their defense either, and every yard was hard-fought for both sides. One area we were on top of from the start though was the scrum: a perfect display of what our girls can do when working together. The first half finished with no further scores, but plenty of intent from both teams.

Our girls’ heads were up when we started the second half and, as seems to be our way, we were playing better, making in-roads to their defense and winning more of the breakdowns. We battered away at their defense as our confidence grew and we moved steadily up the pitch. Some fantastic running and rucking from several players got Nuala to their try line just outside the post and we thought we’d scored, but unfortunately the ball came loose just before she got it down. They won the resultant scrum and cleared their lines, but we came again through another round of bruising runs and recycles. We won a scrum not far from their try line but Welwyn won the hook. Their fullback kicked a huge clearance, but fortunately for us, she was too far back and her teammates were offside. Back we came for the penalty and again we drove hard towards the line through some stellar runs and rucking, culminating in Flo punching to just short of their try line. She didn’t panic though and reached out in a single movement to win our first try of the match. Not content with that, Flo kicked the conversion cleanly. The coaches did their best to temper the players’ elation to concentrate on holding out for the last 2 minutes of the match. Welwyn came at us with everything, but our girls had the win in their sights and fought with everything they had, including holding their own in the scrum with 1 player down. Welwyn couldn’t get through in the middle of the field so went wide one last time but our tackles were too good and they stepped into touch.

What a brilliant game to watch, and what a squad we have! All 16 (yes, a sub!) played their part in order to claw back the win. That is why the coaches’ player of the match is everyone: cookies on their way! Welwyn’s player of the match was Ailsa. For the sake of my heart, let’s not leave it so late next time please girls…