Sarries Girls Runners up at Herts 7’s

Sarries girls went to Tabard on the 18th May to play in the Herts 7’s in the last games as an U15's squad. In the pool games first up was OA’s and Sarries ran out 15 – 0, with tries from Claire x2 and Alice. 10 girls took part in that game, while Chloe, Sarah and CJ guested for the Barbarians. In the second game Sarries played Hertford and quickly coasted into a 17 – 0 lead with two tries from Claire together with a conversion and another try from Alice, all scored playing up hill. In the second half Hertford came back playing up hill and scored three tries to put pressure on the girls, before Claire sealed the match with a converted try to win 24 - 17. Just before half time one of the Hertford girls was injured, and we hope she is all right. At the same time Tilly, Finn and Laura played for the Barbarians in their win over Tamworth, with Laura scoring one of the tries. That took Sarries into the cup semi final against a Reading team, conquerors of Welwyn and Bucks Jesters. Saracens playing up hill in the first half were under instructions to close the very dangerous Reading fly half down and apply pressure to the reading forwards. Pressure from Saracens saw them just stopped short of the line, but Melissa was on hand to pick up the ball and dive over to open the scoring. Claire then scored and converted to give Saracens a healthy lead playing up hill. Reading hit back at the start of the second half with a good score up the hill, before Megan went over in the corner and Sydnie picked up and powered over under the posts Claire finished off the scoring to win 33 – 5. CJ and Sarah were also representing the Barbarians in their final game who ended a creditable eighth. This put Saracens into the final against London Irish who came through the other semi final against Basford by winning a penalty kick off, unluckily for Basford. Sarries started stronger and saw Finn just held up and Megan losing control of the ball at the line. In their first real possession London Irish kicked and chased, getting the bounce and scoring in the corner. Sarries came back and Finn was stopped just short again. In the second half the stronger London Irish team were able to impose themselves on the game and scored 3 more tries before Claire got a consolation try. The girls played very well but were beaten by a better team on the day 22 – 5. It was a great day well run by Tabard and the girls performed brilliantly. A well deserved second place, congratulations!

East Region in Regional Festival

It was a very hot sunny day at Lichfield on Saturday 10th May. The pitches were hard, but not as hard as the rugby! This was the third time I have seen the U15 festival and the level of skills has increased year on year. This year was by far the toughest in tackling and defensive pressure as well as attacking skills. The weather being so hot also took a toll and the biggest job the subs had in each game was getting enough water onto the pitch for the players. In the first game the East played the North East. The girls were really up for it and attacked from the kick-off putting pressure on NE and turning the ball over. Some great skills were shown during the match with offloading before or during contact to keep the game flowing. East won 24-0 with Alex, Finn, Yas and Courtney scoring and Claire converting two conversions and hitting the upright with a third. In an unfortunate incident in the first half one of the NE girls was injured trying to prevent Alex scoring. The air ambulance was called and she was taken to hospital, but was fit enough to return before the end of the day for the prize giving. After the delay for the air ambulance East immediately kicked off against Thames Valley. TV looked keener in the first half, and East were under a lot of pressure, but solid defence kept TV at bay. In the second half East came back into it, but TV pressured defence kept East out. The game ended 0-0, and East by virtue of their bigger win over NE progressed to the Cup competition. In the semi-finals East came up against East Wales. This was a repeat of the bowl final last year, which East lost 5-0. It was to be just as tight this time. East were putting pressure on the Welsh through the forwards and had good possession and territory, but could not break through the Welsh defence. Claire fell just short with a Penalty kick, but at half time it was 0-0. The Welsh kicked off the second half and started to find their rhythm creating half chances in their backs, but the East defence was able to stop them. The Welsh also fell just short with a penalty chance. With less than a minute left a Welsh attacking scrum saw their scrum half pick up and run at the East backs. As she side stepped across she managed to halt the drift of the defence and created enough space for the wing to score. The failed conversion proved to be the last kick of the game and the Welsh were through to the final. The other semi was just as tight and eagerly contested between the South and East Midlands. In a slight surprise EM shaded the contest 3-0, going on to beat the Welsh in the final. Congratulations to EM being a new name on the trophy this year. This left the East to play the South for the 3rd/4th playoff. It looked as though East were really up for it and from the kick-off drove at their opposition. In a number of attacks, great South defending repeatedly stopped East just short of the try line. Just before half time South broke away down the East right and scored. From the restart East immediately put pressure on the South again and were held up just short of the line. The Ref called half time. In the desperate defence one of the South girls was concussed, requiring the ambulance. This resulted in the second half being played on the adjoining pitch and the picture of a mass exodus of the supporters from one side of the ground to the other across the pitch as the girls tried to kick-off, much to the amusement of the Ref! Again the East attacked, and the second half was very much a copy of the first with East launching attack upon attack on the South, but great South defence preventing the crucial score. South eventually held out to win 5-0. East took 4th place, a great performance from all the girls who took part. The final thing now is after the great performances to see how many of the Sarries girls caught the eye of the RFUW staff and get nominated next week for the RFUW High Performance Academies at U18.

East Region v South

On sunday 27th April all 5 of the Saracens girls were in the squad for the game against the winners of the Regional Festival for the last two years. It was always going to be a tough game, but Sydnie was injured early in the first period and couldn’t continue. The East then conceded two very similar tries as the defence didn’t cover across the pitch quickly enough as the South looped players wide to score in the corner. Claire pouncing on a lose ball made a break but was caught by the full back with no support close by, in what was one of the few opportunities for the East to score. Courtney scored the East only try when they kept it tight and drove from a number of rucks over the line. The final score was East 5 : 38 South

County Development Squad v Kent, Middlesex, EC.

This was the second time this season that Herts had hosted a U15 County Development fixture at Welwyn RFC. The two dates were chosen to coincide with Regional dates, to give the next level of players an opportunity to gain more experience at this level. A number of girls from Saracens took part in the games. As the other Counties didn’t have as many girls as Herts, Saracens girls also represented the other counties to make up their numbers, as well as playing at least a match for Herts. The first event in March involved Herts, Kent and Middlesex and they were joined this time by Eastern Counties. Each team played each other in a round robin format, but there was no Trophy at stake. Herts had 25 Players, so quite a few of them ended up guesting for Middlesex and Kent, who were both short of numbers, to ensure they gained as much game time as possible. In the final round of games Herts Girls were playing for 3 different sides simultaneously, but we did ensure that all the Herts. Girls did play in at least one game for their own County.

For the record the Herts scores were:

Herts. 35 Eastern Counties 0

Herts. 29 Kent 0

Herts. 37 Middlesex 0

Both the County U15 Development and U12 Girls team initiatives have been very well received this season and we plan to continue them next season.

County Development Squad v Kent and Middlesex

Whilst the Regional Players were away training, Welwyn hosted a 3 way U15 County Development Fixture between Herts, Kent and Middlesex. Over 20 Girls from 4 Herts Clubs (Saracens, Hertford, Old Albanians and Welwyn) plus two friends from Basford made up the Herts Squad. There was a roll-on roll-off policy throughout the afternoon to give all the Players as much game time experience as possible. Herts drew both games: 10-10 against Kent and then 5-5 against Middlesex. Middlesex beat Kent in the other game. With a number of this seasons Herts A team in their last season of U15 Rugby, many of the Girls that played in these games will be in contention for the Herts U15 A Team next season.

Middlesex Lions v Berkshire

On the day we had 11 players available from Saracens out of a total of 22. We leant a front row player to Berkshire to be able to play contested scrums and get as many girls as possible as much game time as possible. This was a very close match, much closer than the first meeting earlier in the season. The lions needed to win to keep the pressure up on the league leaders Bucks Jesters. They got off to a great start when Tara was able to score wide out. Claire then increased the lead also overlapping to score out wide. The Lions continued to pile on the pressure in the Berks 22, but a loose pass was intercepted and berks were able to go the length of the field to score, just before half time. The second half was more even with Berks applying pressure and equalling the score. The Lions came back but as in the first half a lose ball near the try line was intercepted and run back the length of the pitch to score. Berks then got another good try after some pressure before Tara finally converted the Lions possession with a try in the dying seconds.