Harpenden and Hitchin under 18’s girl’s 15 – Ellingham & Ringwood 19

Our under 18’s girl’s put in a magnificent performance in Hertfordshire on Sunday to win a hard fought and tense semi final of the Rugby Football Union’s London and South East Cup.

Our forwards got the team on the front foot, but a number of handling errors and a breakaway try side saw the home side take a lead against the run of play. We came straight back and good work again by the forwards resulted in player of the match Amber Collins bursting through a number of tackles to score for Ellingham. This was expertly converted by Georgia Lang (pictured).

Further strong work from our pack saw the ball spun wide to Georgina Henry, who scored in the corner to extend the visitors lead to 5-12 at half time.

The home side flew out of the blocks in the second half and despite having less possession than us they managed to get the ball out to the wing to score an unconverted try straight after the break. The home side enjoyed their best spell of the game and more good hands in the backs saw them score another unconverted try to open up a 15-12 lead.

With about twenty minutes to play it was clear we would have to dig deep and through great forward play and intelligent kicking from both scrum half Alicia Maude and fly half Georgia Lang, we managed to pin the home side down on their own line. A strong scrum, which had been dominant from the start saw number 8 Ava Seymour burst for the line. Despite being tackled just short, the ball was recycled and flanker, Jasmine Roger scored under the posts. The try was again converted to give us a 15-19 lead. Despite late pressure from the home side, we held on to seal a remarkable victory and book our place in the final.