U18 girls continue to improve despite loss to strong Cobham

Darts entertained Cobham who were the quality side of last season and had beaten us 89-5. This was a daunting task for the young inexperienced Darts team who were without 6 experienced players but they entered the fray with fantastic team spirit and determination and certainly the final score does not reflect the effort and skill put in by all of the team. There was certainly nothing in the opening exchanges with both sides working hard to gain a foothold in the game and the darts tackling and rucking was very good and contained the strong running Cobham team. Pelumi, Poppy and Rebecca were getting a lot of chances to take the ball on as well as holding their own in the front row and Pip and Jess in the second row were doing a tremendous amount of work in the loose. The Cobham defence was strong and well organised and this stopped Abbie, Lizzie and Emily making any breakthroughs but this wasn't through a lack of effort and the defence was much better this week against some powerful runners especially the visiting No12 who had great balance and speed to add to her strength in contact. When Cobham got the ball wide Anna and Evie were there on hand to force errors. Cobham did make a breakthrough but Lillie , one of the smallest players on the park continued to show her bravery and tackling technique making two exceptional tackles. All in all the team was handling things very well and our back row were everywhere with Innes despite her inexperience continuing to shine and she was backed up by Megan who was on the blindside flank moving from Hooker and Emily was controlling the ball at No8 as well as taking it on strongly. This week was similar to last week when territorialy we were doing well but Cobham were clinical finishers and again this week it was speed out wide which contributed to the visiting scores. The half ended with a great piece of continuity play featuring forwards and backs and only a small error stopped a score. At half time it was 24 -0 to Cobham which was complimentary to the visitors. Darts came out in the second half having already having had to make changes when Emily had taken the ball on at No8 but received an injury. Abbie who making her first start at fly half had to move into the back row with Emily Davies going back to 10. The second half started with Darts playing up the hill and against the wind but they defended with confidence and Ellie started that from scrum half and this spread out through the team. Cobham kept the play in the Darts half but they weren't finding the space and the home team were managing to turn over the ball and launch attacks themselves with some great runs from Lizzie, Emily, Anna and Abbie. One break out saw the ball pass through numerous hands before Abbie sped clear and ran 40 metres and with the line in front of her it was only a superb tackle by the visiting no 7 that stopped an almost certain try. Unfortunately it was the experience of the Cobham side which allowed them to clear their lines and get behind the Darts defence and score their first try of the half. Further breaks by Emily and Lizzie put pressure on Cobham and the support play was a lot stronger this week which pushed us deep into the opposing half. Talie, Melissa and Lizzie G were on the pitch in the second half and despite not getting a lot of ball they were very disciplined and worked hard in defence for the team. Cobham did score a two more tries but both of them were from very deep when our inexperience gave them easy ball which they used really well from inside their own half. All in all an extremely satisfying performance from a very young inexperienced side against a very good Cobham team.
It was very difficult to pick a player of the match with players such as Jess, Lizzie, Emily,Innes and Lillie giving great performances but in the end it was Abbie who, playing in two contrasting positions was exceptional in her tackling, running, positional sense and all round determination, was given the accolade.