Junior Plate: Lewes Ladies vs Barnes Ladies (28th February 2016)

The team was in great spirits as we gathered at the clubhouse on Sunday morning, with Zoe dishing out bacon rolls to us as we waited for the bus to arrive. Responsibly, Jen remembered to get the kit on the bus once our driver parked up. We also managed to successfully load our star player onto the bus – she came out of retirement specifically for the game – and before we knew it, Grandma had slept through the laughing, joking and highly questionable singing that ensued on the journey down to Lewes.

Unfortunately we’d hit a bit of traffic on the way so we arrived with about an hour to spare for our warm up. The wind was quite bitter and the pitches looked as though they’d been used for some serious games the day before, but we got stuck in as not moving was painfully cold.

The Ref (who was definitely struggling with the cold conditions) set the game off and Lorraine kicked the ball up-field, the wind helping to drive it far into Lewes Ladies’ territory. As predicted, the match was about the forwards from the off, with a clear strategy to use their powerful pack to muscle us off the ball. We managed to maintain possession and stay in their half for the opening five minutes, just about surviving the first few nervy scrums.

Our forwards went to work from the off, putting up a strong defence each time Lewes Ladies touched the ball, with Kaeli, Anna, Ian and Grandma heading up the charge. Following a game plan of a few crashes through the middle by our forwards followed by shipping the ball out to the backs, we built an opportunity for Lorraine (playing at centre) to crash into the Lewes defence about 10m out from the try line. Lewes Ladies managed to slow her down, and although we tried to set up a maul, we were brought to ground just five meters from the goal line, allowing Grandma to spot “a 5ft 2inch hole” in their defensive line which she powered through to smash over the try line – what a way to make a comeback! And well done to Lorraine for that assist.

We set up to receive the kick off and the war of attrition resumed. Steady hands saw us take the ball in and try to push through their defences, and to a point the game plans we’d discussed in the warm up were working, but the Lewes Ladies’ determined defence meant that even though we’d managed to get near their 22m line a few times, they held us off and occasionally regained possession of the ball, testing our defence in return.

After a short spell of play which saw us retreating towards the halfway line, we managed to get our hands back on the ball. It was quickly shipped out to Em who did a fantastic job of speeding past Lewes Ladies’ forward defence, weaving through their backs to touch down near the posts. Lorraine cleared the conversion and we were 12-0 up with about 10 minutes to go.

The game wore on and the wind whipped up, making it difficult to control our line outs. The scrums were intense and on a few occasions the Lewes pack managed to drive us back, although for the most part Barnes just about kept a steady hold as we settled into the game and our initial nerves at having to face such a strong pack started to fade.

Our tackling was strong despite the Lewes players being well drilled at using attacking pods and taking the ball in quite flat and at pace. A few times their backs managed to ship the ball out wide to test our defences, but Jo, Em and Leah put in some amazing tackles to prevent them from breaking through and allowing us to win the ball back in most instances. We even managed to get the forwards involved in taking down the pacey Lewes backs, with Ruth contributing a massive hit on one of their speedsters who was attempting to steam down the left of the field, helping to keep the score sheet clean as the clock ticked down on the first half.

Lewes ladies returned to utilising the sheer power that their forwards were generating to punish us with some big hits – which eventually started to take its toll when Kaeli was pulled to the side of the field to plug up her nose bleed. Lewes dropped a flanker in the scrum while she was off, but kept 15 players on the field as we set to work pushing up on their try line. Repeating a move that she has been perfecting over the last few games, Amelia spotted a gap in the defence a few meters out from the whitewash and with about three defenders hanging off her, managed to squeeze over the try line near the posts. Lorraine slotted another conversion despite the tough conditions, bringing us up to 19-0 as the half time whistle went.

The second half was not so fun, as Lewes Ladies called in their bench, bringing on some fresh legs and capitalising on the downhill slope of the pitch and wind at their backs. Kaeli sustained a few more knocks to the face, but soldiered on, refusing to back down in attack or defence despite her injuries. Anna, Roishi and Eleonore worked hard at crashing down the middle of the field, fighting to hold up the mauls and stop the advance of the Lewes Ladies but eventually the fatigue started to show and before long, the Lewes Ladies managed to push over the white wash, just scraping through our defence. The try was not converted and we set up again with a kick off.

The war of attrition resumed and tired bodies began to give in, with both teams picking up knocks along the way. Despite Eleonore’s roars of “shi(f)t, shi(f)t, shi(f)t!” we couldn’t maintain the tempo we’d had in the first half, and eventually the Lewes attack managed to dance through us as one of their speedy backs dotted down to the right of the posts. Again, the conditions wreaked havoc with the kick and the try was not converted as the ball hit the cross bar.

At around 8 minutes to go, another punishing phase of play saw Tracey putting up some solid defence, fending off the strong Lewes forwards as they charged at our line. We slowed them down, still making substantial tackles, with Grandma’s rucking skills including some colourful language as she politely invited the Lewes players to remove their hands from the ball at the breakdown.

But the Lewes Ladies continued to push hard at our defence, tying up enough Barnes players at the breakdown for just the right amount of time to allow one of their backs a moment to sneak through our back line of protection and power towards the try line. Fortunately, some good pressure and tenacity from our fullback meant that the ball was fumbled by the Lewes player just as she reached the line, resulting in the Ref (who seemed to be running around the field with his arms folded in an effort to stay warm) to award no try.

It was back to the 22m mark for a drop out and we pushed back down field. Unfortunately though, we soon ended up back in our half, with the Lewes ladies looking to bag some more points. In one last attempt, we managed to secure the ball and pass it along the line as our backs charged down the field. Quick feet and solid defence from the Lewes Ladies saw our hopes of scoring any points in the second half dashed as we went to ground and lost possession of the ball.

With about 2 minutes left to play, the Lewes Ladies put in a big effort, the team working well as the forwards smashed into us, slowing our defence down and creating opportunities out wide for their backs to speed through. A final try was scored, but the kick slid under the cross bar bringing the closing score to 19-15 in Barnes’ favour. The Ref was almost all the way back in the warmth of clubhouse before the sound of his whistle had officially signalled the end of the game – he was really struggling with the cold conditions – and we shook hands with our formidable opponents.

After everyone had stroked Herbert the hound and we’d had our customary team photo, we limped back to the changing room to defrost. As Grandma was unravelling the miles of tape around her ankle, she took a moment to reflect out loud how well we’d played, and how “despite losing, everyone seemed so cheerful and we should be really proud of ourselves”…it wasn’t until we explained that we’d won that she understood why everyone was in such a good mood!

Following a lovely warm meal and a few bevvies we all piled back onto the bus. Celebratory Prosecco was dished out by Em as soon as the wheels started rolling, and once the fines had been handed out the bad singing commenced – all the way back to the Barnes clubhouse. Well done to Leah for not swearing at the driver or ruining the upholstery on the bus, and to travelsick Ruth for not yacking in the dustbin – even though both were a bit ‘touch-and-go’ at one point!

Highlights of the match:

• Grandma's return: And what a return it was, with a 'D*ck of the day" award to boot!
• Back of the Match: Tracey had a great game in the back line, with some great hands and big tackles.
• Forward of the Match: Ian certainly had the "frenzy mode" switch in an "on" position as she tackled and rucked like a trooper.
• Our spectators: Dibs and lovely little Herbert, Harry and more of Eleonore's mates.
• The spectacular signing on the bus: There were some really good renditions, and we managed to educate some of the youngsters on the bus about what real music sounds like, introducing them to classic like "good vibrations" by the Beach Boys and Tina Turner's version of Rolling on the River.
• Our bus driver's tolerance for high pitched noises: and shatterproof glass!

It was a great day out with the team, but above all a good game which showed our quality as a unit and how we’ve developed as the season has gone on. In our challenge for a place in the Junior Plate we’ve shown that we’re adaptable, capable of winning against quicker teams like Hackney who look to kick and run the ball, but also able to stand up to teams who prefer to play the game up front like Lewes – who are also a league above us in Women’s NC South East South 1 as it goes! And a lot of this is down to our coaches, who push us each week no matter how much we moan or screw up simple tasks like passing and catching and rucking at training, and who are able to read our opponents and guide us on match days.

We’ve got a month of league games coming up before we meet Windsor Ladies in the quarter-finals of the Junior Plate at home on 3rd April. I’m sure our training will be very much focused around getting minds (and bodies) in the right place to fight for a position in the semi-finals. Can we all make an effort to be at training over the next four weeks, and also do our best to be available for the game on the 3rd April. Although we’ve not all been able to play every cup fixture so far, we’ve managed to participate in either a game or we’ve been present at training which has helped us to get to the position we’re in now as a team. So as a team, we should all be proud of what we’ve done to this point, and we should work with and for each other to get Barnes to the next level of the competition. We surprise ourselves each week at how much we can achieve, let’s see how far we can go.

Our fixture on Sunday 6th March is against Harlequins Ladies at their home ground. This is a derby match for Barnes Ladies, so Harlequins will be looking bring their A-game to us. Let’s be at their grounds at 12:30pm, ready to warm up and have a good game.