U18s Girls
Matches
Sun 05 Feb 2017
Welcome to Dartfordians RFC
U18s Girls
5
89
Cobham/Chobham
Maginificent effort from Darts girls against a strong Cobham team

Maginificent effort from Darts girls against a strong Cobham team

Dave Phillips5 Feb 2017 - 18:42
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Darts entertained Cobham in their Cup match

Darts entertained Cobham in their Cup match and from the start it was clear that they were up against a very talented and organised team. The way in which Cobham hit the breakdown and then moved the ball quickly through hands was a joy to see and their physicality was harder than anything the girls have yet faced . The girls worked really hard but the skill level they were up against saw them being pulled out of position and the speed out wide was there to finish off with tries. This level of play took Darts a little while to get up to speed with but eventually they started to compete led by Lizzie who was exceptional throughout and skipper Lola who was great in the tight and loose play. Unfortunately for the home team they lost the influential Lara to a shoulder injury which took some of the physicality out of the Darts play. The girls didn't let their heads drop and were trying to make a breakthrough but the defensive organisation against them was impressive. Cerys who was making her debut for the team was playing really well at No8 and not at all intimidated when taking the ball on into contact. Megan came on to play at hooker replacing Lara and made a great go at a difficult position on her first attempt in fact she ended up playing in 4 different positions throughout the game. Our scrum held up really well and looked quite comfortable with Lola and Rebecca solid at prop and this did allow us to get some good ball and did put on some good pressure inside the Cobham 22 but couldn't quite make a breakthrough. Cobham were excellent at jackalling the ball and turned us over on a number of occasions whenever we were fractionally slow to protect the ball. This resulted in counterattacks which put us on the backfoot but great tackling managed to keep out the first waves but the pressure kept coming and gaps appeared for the visitors to exploit. Ellie was working really well at scrum half but took a knock and had to leave the field and Abbie came in to replace her and carried on from where she left off in our previous cup match. Cecilia and Melissa had teamed up in the centre for the first time and stood up to the task really well but were finding it hard to get any ball going forward to show their running skills and Pip and Chloe on the wings were putting in a great shift tackling for all their worth. Despite being well behind at halftime the girls were still in high spirits and looking forward to the second half. There was a definite change in the game as Darts started to get more ball and managing to compete more for the ball. Jess and Eleanor were doing what all good locks do by being solid in the tight and offering themselves up take the ball on and this allowed Darts to get Safara and BK into the game and both made many carries which invariably made good ground. Cobham did handle both of them really well but it was certainly a shift in the game. Darts were making the visitors work hard and forcing them wide all the time making sure that no scores came through then middle. Georgia who came on and played both in the second row and hooker belied her size and took the ball on fearlessly and this gave Emily a chance of a bit of space at fly half to start running at Cobham and was rewarded when she took the ball on and scored her first ever try which was a just reward for the work the team had put. The team had numerous injuries throughout the match and Cerys was extremely unlucky when in an innocuous tackle rolled on her ankle and suffered a broken bone in her foot. We wish her well with her recovery. Jess received a painful blow to her throat and Eleanor went down a couple of times following some heavy contact. Abbie caught a finger in her eye but all of the girls came back on and continued to work for their teammates showing superb commitment to the team. Despite the heavy defeat by an excellent Cobham team all the girls lifted themselves to another level both mentally and physically and will all have learned a great deal from today's experience and now see the level they need to aspire to. It was a pleasure to see a team as accomplished as Cobham playing some great rugby and they had an outstanding player in their centre Brisket who has pace and tremendous all round skills.

Match details

Match date

Sun 05 Feb 2017

Kickoff

13:00
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