U16 girls:
The U16 girls were up against Basildon, a team known to be talented and strong. And as expected they were a tough opponent, excellent in defence with great rucking skills. However, the OR girls responded well to the pressure, upped their game and powered through to win 20:5.
After what seemed like a long tense score drought, Pip Sutherland (captain) set Rowan Turney up to score a great try. But then Basildon responded with a try of their own to take OR into the 2nd half with matching scores. Nail biting stuff. In the second half, every OR player gave 110% to stop Basildon breaking through and scoring again. It was an amazing team effort with clever passing, great runs and several near tries, not to mention endless full on tackling. But it was Imogen Wheeler who delivered the goods twice in succession – one of which resulted from a clever set piece by the backs and the other from a great high ball catch by Imogen who then proceeded to run the length of the pitch and slam the ball down under the posts. And then Sofia Lewry (who only moved from touch rugby to contact rugby this season) sealed the victory by powering the ball over the line in ORs fourth and final try.
U18 girls:
The U18 girls played against Enfield Ignations, which after a close first half, ended up a 38:5 victory to OR. In a tense first 35 minutes, both team’s forwards went head to head for much of it with few try scoring opportunities. OR responded by making a few adjustments and pulled together to score 2 tries (Molly Schofield and Lilly Woodhams), however Enfield fought back to score an amazing try from a cross field kick. Half time finished 12:5 to OR with it feeling like the match could go either way.
In the second half ORs superior skills and fitness levels shone through and they dominated from start to finish. A great team effort resulted in another try by Molly. And despite some ‘tough’ ref decisions against OR (leaving them down 2 players for part of the match), OR bunkered down to successfully keep Enfield away from the try line during that time. The team kept working well together and delivered a further 3 tries (Lilly Woodhams, Lilly Britton and Gwen Sheehan). Not to mention 4 conversions for Tilly Palmer-Denning.
