Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Herts U18 Girls win London & South East Rugby Festival

Herts beat Surrey in the final to take the London & South East county rugby festival title for the second time in succession on Sunday 6 October.

The Herts girls romped through the pool round without conceding a try. The first match was a comprehensive 50-0 victory over Eastern Counties. Strong running by forwards Ellena Perry and Harriet Austin, followed by a string of passes among the backs, resulted in Katy Walker scoring the first try in the corner.

Sydney Gregson completed a hatrick. Two of her tries were almost identical with strong running through the middle complete with handoffs. Her third came as a result of some good handling among the backs. Beth Summerfield scored two tries. Her first involved a neat sidestep to score under the posts and her second came from a run down the wing. Herts added a further try from their inside centre and Zoe Harrison converted five of her eight attempts.

The second match against Kent was, as expected, a tighter affair with Herts coming out with a 12 – 0 win. Kent contained Herts for much of the match allowing the Herts backs very little freedom with the ball. Herts’ first try came when prop Vicci Cogger emerged with the ball from a maul and powered her way uphill 30m to the tryline with players hanging off her. Sydney scored the second try under the post which gave Zoe an easy conversion.
 
The third pool game brought a 19 – 0 victory over Hampshire. The score line stood at 0-0 for much of the game. Bringing on Vicci towards the middle of the second half seemed to bring Herts to life and they scored three tries in quick succession by Welwyn/Hartpury teamates Vicci and Sydney (who scored twice). Zoe added two conversions.

The final was against Surrey. Herts scored in the opening minutes when the ball was moved neatly along the backs from a lineout resulting in a try for fullback Sydney. This was her seventh of the day, making her Herts’ top try scorer. Herts’ second try followed a scrum 7 metres out when their inside centre powered through the middle to score.

Herts final try of the day came when Beth picked up a loose ball near the half way line and outsprinted the Surrey defence down the wing to score in the corner. With Zoe successfully converting two of her three attempts Herts were 19-0 ahead. Surrey then came back with a try of their own to take the scoreline to 19-5. With an injury to a Herts player requiring an ambulance the match was stopped with a minute to go and Herts were divisional champions.

Head coach John Harrison said, “All the coaches are proud of the way the girls played today and they deserve to be champions. It was a fantastic team performance. All the girls worked for each other and did everything they were asked and more.” 


Team: Abigail Ativie, Harriet Austin, Sara Blissett, Vicci Cogger, Hayley, Everett, Sydney Gregson, Zoe Harrison, Florence Jones, Aine McMahon, Pat Metcalfe-Jones, Jo Palfrey, Ellena Perry, Bryony Pomfret, Helen Roberts, Megan Smith, Jeanine Stephenson, Beth Summerfield, Aleah Townsend, Katy Walker

(Photos: Jonathan Cirkel)

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