Oakmeadians Under 15's girls 20 - Ellingham & Ringwood 35

What a match today. It all looked difficult at the start. Oaks were big girls with quite an aggressive warm up.

From the start we were under pressure as we dropped the ball from the kick off. This was the first of many dropped balls from kick off, much to Raj's frustration. Oaks were very aggressive immediately and pressed home the advantage to score their 1st try in 20 seconds from the start. One minute later the Oaks girls had run Ellingham ragged and were heading for their second try. Fortunately Evie did not give up chasing the last Oaks girl to the line and tackled her just as she was putting the ball down. She dropped it! Well done Evie, it just shows that you should always chase the opposition and always put the tackle in, even though it seems a lost cause.

Ellingham finally switched on and from the scrum Evie hit the blind side, Tao stormed forward, offloaded to Louise crossing into space passed to Georgina who, gazellelike, sprinted around the final 2 defenders. The spectators roared!

Unfortunately Ellingham switched off again. Oaks caught the kick off and ran straight through the middle of flailing Ellingham arms and desparate cries from Raj (and spectators) of "Tackle! tackle!".

Ellingham gradually ground themselves back into the game. From a lineout Lottie fought for the ball, offloaded to Evie running through 2 tackles and then Georgina finished it off, smashing through the last defender.

End of the 1st third 10:10 score.

Ellingham showed their intent from kick off with Louise piling on the pressure as Oaks could not catch the kick off. From the scrum, Evie ran in the 3rd try.

Ellingham slowly grasped the advantage, Tao took a great lineout catch, Lottie smashed through, Georgina rounded the defenders for her 3rd try - well deserved.

Oaks were determined to play like Wales and just smash straight down the centre. There was a fine tackle from Maria to hold them out. She took down the largest Oaks player as if her legs had been cut off. Way to go, Maria. Ellingham were inspired to start to tackle properly and held Oaks out. Until the sneaked a run down the blindside from a scrum and smashed over the line.

Libby was unlucky not to score a fabulous try. Evie broke away very fast with Libby running support. One defender to beat and Evie offloaded a difficult ball high above Libby. Libby grasped at what was a very difficult catch and was finger tips away from catching it. It was fine support play and very unlucky, Libby was flying and there was no way anyone would have stopped the try.

End of the 2nd third: 20 Ellingham:15 Oaks

In the final third, Ellingham were at last fully switched on and Oaks were tiring. It was hot and oppressive but the girls fought on.
Oaks kicked the ball dead from the kick off. Scrum on halfway line: Louise, now playing centre, received the ball 5 yards inside Ellingham half and she started to run. She kept running and running. No-one and nothing could stop her. Oaks players lay in her wake. A fabulous try.
Oaks Kicked off. Marie picked up and then, clearly inspired by Louise, she ran the length of the pitch, dodging through what must have been about 5 Oaks tackles. She was so unlucky to be tackled just 2 yards from the line. Katie was running great support and was unlucky not to be able to collect the ball to fire over for the try.

Oaks managed to regroup and went back to trying to smash through the middle. There were a few missed tackles and Oaks grasped back a try and some hope.

From the kick off, Maria and Katie pressured Oaks hard who knocked on. From the scrum Evie flew over to score another try on the blindside.
The last kick off, clean catch from Evie who set off up the pitch. Great support play from Ellingham recycling the ball after the tackle. Just after the halfway line Lottie got the ball and drove forward through 3 tackles and was within whisker of the line when she was tackled. Ellingham girls were in full support and recycled the ball several times to end the match with Evie flying over in the corner.

Final Score of a hard fought match: 35 Ellingham: 20 Oaks

Overall a good performance in almost tropical conditions!