Women v Bec Belles

Women v Bec Belles

With the rain clearing away for the start of the game, the Thornwood girls took to the field with a different starting line up than last weeks game.

Jess, Lauren & Kerrie made up the front row, with stalwarts Anna & Alexa as the locks, and Larry, Rottweiler & BK completing the Back row.

Donna at scrum-half and Ella at 10 kept some familiarity in those key positions, with Aisling and Eden covering the wings.
The Centre pairing was made up of Millie & Emma, with Ella D starting as Fullback.

The first 15 minutes or so were all about Bec Belles.
They carried, passed and kicked extremely well, and worked their way gradually up the pitch.
Epping had to work hard in defence, bringing every single player into defensive duties, pressuring and tackling in every area of the field.
Rottweiler was everywhere and possibly hit every opposition player at some point in the half.
Alexa, BK & Anna did the dog work and ground down the big ball carriers, before finally, a turnover made the ball available and the girls set up to attack.

Donna spun the ball out, Ella passed to Millie then she looped round to take the popped pass
Bursting past one then two tacklers, Ella crossed the line and put the ball down for the first score
5-0

Conversion missed, the girls reset and Bec Belles kicked off with the same mindset as before.
Their big carriers made yards, but couldn’t completely break through, they kicked over the top but Ella D caught and took it back to them.
Eden on the wing was having a stormer, barking out orders, driving people back in the tackle and generally having a good time.
Original Hurley had been brought on for Jess and was barrelling through players for fun.
No eyelash issues this week, just lessons in how to hand off tacklers.

The Belles forced their way back up the pitch, but just couldn’t make any moves stick, so when the opportunity for a kick at goal came from a penalty, they took the option and brought the score to 5-3

With only minutes to go till halftime, Epping took the ball into contact and recycled efficiently 2 or 3 times before Ella once again managed to round the defence and make it to the corner and score the second try of the match
The ball just dipped under the crossbar on the conversion attempt, so the score remained at 10-3

Soon after the ref blew for halftime and the teams gathered for drinks

The coaches brought on Lauza, Jane & India in the back row, Shammah replaced Aisling and with Ella having hurt her shoulder scoring the last try, Millie stepped into the Flyhalf position and Hollie went to Fullback

Epping kept to their beliefs and harried the opposition and forced turnovers when defending.
The scrum was strong, the lineouts were solid and the Backs looked like they wanted to run it.
And run it they did, with a lovely move in the middle of the park, which also included Original Hurley, shipping the ball all the way down the line to a looping Millie to run it over the line and dot it down for the try
Ball converted this time, so the score went to
17-3

Soon after, an unfortunate seat belt tackle from Ella D saw her banished to the sin-bin for 10 minutes.
Now it was the turn of Bec Belles to begin their comeback, and with some really hard worked moves and carries they managed to get their first try, which was converted.
Then they shocked everyone by getting another, which was also converted, and suddenly it was 17-17 and the Thornwood Girls were in a proper battle.

With time ticking away, nerves were fraying and hearts were hammering, so Millie decided to ignore all coaching advice and run around the whole back line, brush off a couple of tackles and score a try.
No conversion this time, so 22-17 it was, with less than 2 minutes to go.

From the restart, India took the ball into a huge contact with 2 Becs players and stayed down with what was a heavy knock to her hip and back.
The ref decided this would be the end of the game and blew the whistle.

So the Epping girls keep their unbeaten record, but were pushed hard and tested by this Becs Belles team who should be mighty proud of their efforts.

A lesson in how to defend today from Epping.
No matter what size of defender compared to the attacker, they put their bodies on the line and took some heavy blows, but they just wouldn’t cave.

Forward of the match went to Original Hurley for absolutely destroying the opposition when carrying, and for her immense work rate at the ruck.

Back of the match went to Millie for a great display of what it means to be team player -
started out of position at centre, moved to Flyhalf when needed, and scored the winning try

The bottle of fizz for “Granny Smasher” of the day went to Rottweiler for her first half performance of monstrous tackling