Epping Women v Romford

With Epping’s pitches being unplayable, this home fixture was moved to Romford’s ground, and the girls were happy to see a fairly dry pitch.

It had been 4 weeks since the girls last game, so they were eager to go.

The game started, and immediately Epping put Romford under pressure in their own half.
Repeated hard tackles knocked the opposition backwards. Ball carriers were stopped, rucks were ferociously competed and the Thornwood girls refused to allow Romford any territory

Eventually the pressure told, and one of Epping’s smallest players, scrum half Donna won the turnover. From the resulting penalty Epping pressed again and again, with the ball moving back and forth across the pitch, until Millie cut the perfect line and Emma popped the perfect pass for Millie to score the first try
Converting her own try the score was 7-0

Romford soon came back however, with a breakaway try from their speedy left wing
Score 7-5

Epping regathered and set about their task with more of the same.
Jess carried hard into contact, Rottweiler stepped and bounced players, Hurley handed off anyone in her way and India chopped players down, no matter what size.

At every scrum, Epping were shoving Romford backwards, and from one of these Donna spun the ball to Ella at 10, who linked with Mel, then Emma and looped back round to pop it to a charging Millie who sprinted all the way down the wing to dot down for Epping’s 2nd try.
Too far out for the conversion, the score stayed at 12-5

Romford wouldn’t give up, and they pushed up the pitch through hard work and some missed tackles by Epping, eventually making it into the Epping 5m, where they were awarded a couple of penalties in quick succession and managed to dive under a despairing tackle
to score again
12-10

Romford pressed yet again from the restart, and despite one of the best crunching tackles
of the game being put in on their winger by Shammah, Romford managed to get into Epping’s 22, before chipping the ball over for an attempted chip and chase.
The ball ran dead, so a 22 drop out was awarded to Epping……
And the resulting kick just happened to bounce into the arms of the speedy Romford winger again, who gratefully shot down the wing and scored out wide.
Again the conversion was missed by Romford, so the score was 12-15 when the ref blew for halftime

Now the girls gathered for the half time talk being behind for the first time this season.
The Coaches reminded the girls of what they were capable of, and left them to work out how they were going to execute it.

With Nina now replacing Jess, Lauren for BJ, and Larry on the pitch, the tempo was raised from the kickoff.
The Forwards harried the receiver, and turnover ball was won.
Donna pounced on it, passed it to Ella H who spun it to Ella D on the left wing.
Ella punched through the first attempted tackle, kept going and surprised the next 2 tacklers by forcing her way through their challenges and over the line for the quickest of scores from a restart.
17-15 to Epping

Fifteen more minutes of dogged work by every player got the Thornwood girls back down the pitch into Romford’s 22, and inevitably saw Millie go over again for her 3rd
Yet again the conversion was missed so the score remained at 22-15

This seemed to settle the girls and they looked in real control for the first time in the game.
Jane came on for India, and Shamma was replaced by Alicia, Becks came on to the right wing too.
20 minutes later, the Backs worked their magic and after the ball went through all their hands, yet again Millie went over for her 4th try of the day
Converting her own try this time, the score went to 29-15.

With only 5 minutes remaining, Romford took it to Epping and forced their way down the park to within 10 metres of their try line.
A massive defensive effort on the line ensued, with body crunching tackles made by
India, Alexa Donna & Ella H.

Epping were penalised from a ruck though, and from the resulting penalty, Romford quickly got the ball out wide to their winger again, who must have thought she was going in for her 3rd, when a combined double hit from Emma and Becks drove her backwards and down into the floor.

Unfortunately the ref had deemed Epping to have transgressed again, and sin-binned Alexa.
With a gap in the defence, Romford forced their way over for another try from close range to make it 29-20

Now only 2 minutes remained and Epping took the restart intending keep the ball until the final whistle.
BK caught the restart and set the ruck, but the ball rolled forward whilst being dug out and Romford had possession again!
With everyone holding their breath, one more huge hit from Anna forced the knock-on and Epping kicked the ball out to end the game.

One more fantastic show of teamwork and fighting for each other from the Thornwood girls.
From Captain Donna, to FlyHalf Ella, Wingers Shamma & Ella D and Forwards Alexa, Anna, Hurley & India, all gave everything and left nothing out on the pitch.

Players like Jess, Larry, Becks and Alicia who haven’t had the most game time, stood up and showed the depth of strength there is in this team

Forward of the Match went to Anna
Back of the Match went to Millie
And the “Granny Smasher” award went to Shammah for her bone crunching tackle in the first half.

On to Millwall next weekend for the girls, and while they are in this form, it will be difficult to see anything other than a win

MVDT