Our Under 13's girl's at the Worthing tournament

Our Under 13's girls had a great day out at the Worthing Rugby festival on Sunday 4th May. With Pippa having to withdraw from the squad with a broken finger we arrived with just six players, however we were bolstered by three girls from Rochford rugby club in Essex.

Our first match in the pool was a close affair against Pullborough, with both sides playing strong attacking rugby. Eventually we went down by 8 tries to 6. Strong displays by Emma, Josie and captain Alicia kept us in touch throughout. A quirk of the competition meant we had to play a strong Pullborough squad again, with a similarly competitive match leading to a narrow 7 tries to 5 defeat. In this match Holly, Molly and Mary really found their feet and played very strongly.

Going through to the Shield competition the girls really focused in a very close semi-final against host team Worthing. The match was a draw, but our girls went through to the final by the virtue of the number of tries we scored in the pool stage, a real testament to their creative, attacking play and 'never say die' attitude. This match also saw the try of the tournament where some strong, aggressive, attacking play by the team led to Alicia sprinting into space. Weaving through two attempted tackles she then floated a great pass out to Mary on the wing who went over in the corner.

A difficult final against a very strong Medway squad, combining several different clubs, led to the girls conceding 4 early tries without reply in the first five minutes. At this stage our girls, most of whom were playing in their first competitive competition, could have given up. However they refused to lie down and came back strongly, scoring 2 tries of their own, either side of half time. A dramatic come back was not to happen though as they eventually went down in the final by 8 tries to 4.

Well done to all of the girls, most of whom got their first taste of competitive rugby. The courage and the skill of all of the girls was outstanding. Top try scorer on the day was Alicia with 6 tries in all.