Barnes Ladies vs Hackney Ladies (24th January 2016)

And so, the first report of the year. Where to start?!?! After what could have been a forced cancellation due to waterlogged pitches at our usual venue, Christy pulled it out of the bag for us and secured a field for the league game at Barnes Elms grounds – thanks Christy!

The weather was positively spring-like, a toasty 14 degrees C with blue skies - a great day for rugby. The changing room was packed and buzzing, complete with newbie Ella who made an epic journey to the grounds just to wear a green and gold jersey – next time you’ll get a chance to show us what you can do in it!

Both teams filed out on to the pitch to warm up for a bit while we waited for the Ref to arrive - he was caught in traffic on his way over from a game he’d refereed earlier in the day. After some minor issues with plastic studs and boot swapping, and with our supporters loyally lined up at the edge of the pitch, the Ref was finally satisfied that we knew he was in charge and the whistle blew.

Our captain lofted the ball a long way down the right hand side of the pitch and although Hackney Ladies gathered the ball in cleanly at first, a fumbled pass (brought on by some great pressure from our backs as they charged up the field) meant that Em got her mitts on the ball and powered over the whitewash within minutes of the game starting to set up a clean conversion - an easy and valuable nerve settler, but certainly not the tone that would be set for the rest of the game.

Not wanting to let us settle in with such an early score, Hackney ladies set about trying to unpick us with their immensely powerful forward pack in the scrums and breakdowns and some well read field positioning from their backs, punishing us with speedy bolts along the wings anytime Barnes gave them the smallest sniff of space out wide. And sure enough their persistence paid off around 7 minutes later as they crossed over the try line with a big push from their forwards.

From that point on it became a war of attrition. Their forwards dominated the scrums for the most part (although not as much as they had in our first meeting in October last year) but a powerful shove from Barnes ladies saw us push them off their ball. Fancy footwork from Anna and slick hands from GB meant the ball was shipped out of the set piece and into Em's hands again as she charged up the right wing. Her efforts were cut short around twenty meters out form their try line, but a build up of phases meant that we created just enough disorganization in their pack for Fran to dodge and smash through tackles and clear the try line far on the left wing.

Hackney refused to take this lying down and set up for a big effort. Although we spent much of the remaining 10 minutes in their half, we apparently committed a lot of infringements under pressure which gave them an opportunity to use their captain’s boot to shift us back downfield. It also gave Lorraine the chance to get a solid hand-off in on the Ref as she ploughed through a few Hackney players off a pick-and-go from a breakdown. Lorraine’s drive quickly became a rolling maul (“will ye’s push me”) which was collapsed by a Hackney player and a penalty was awarded to us.

The ball was shipped quickly out of the set piece, and Rhi - not wanting to be outdone in the hand-off stakes - started off down the pitch with the ball only to be ushered out of play on the right touch line, inadvertently bringing Em's mom into play with a solid shove to the sternum on her way to the ground. Caroline watched the game at the far end of the pitch after that!

Fortunately, our line outs were strong, and we managed to upset Hackney's rhythm with some particularly good challenges. Lorraine and Ruth gave Rosie enough good quality air time to guide the ball safely down into GB's hands. An absolute peach of a long pass from Leah swung the ball wide off a line out and our backs got to stretch their legs along the left of the pitch as the ball flowed beautifully through their hands, only to be kept from scoring by some tight defence from Hackneys nippy backs as the clock ticked down and the half came to an end.

The second half kicked off with as much grunt as the first, with lots of power being used up front and some occasional solid rucking from both teams. Hackney drew first blood, showing their intentions of getting back on the board and evening up the scores. A quick run and a little break just outside our 22m mark saw a speedy Hackney back sneak over the line near the posts, setting up an easy conversion.

Play resumed after a few early subs, with Kaeli coming on at loose-head for Charlotte after Ian had subbed off earlier with an injury, and Amelia taking up “cat herding” duties at 9. Another quality line out, this time beautifully managed through Amelia’s hands, was shipped out wide and into Fran’s open arms, with some fancy footwork giving her space to dance around and/or through the defence one more time to secure Barnes’ third try under the posts. Lorraine’s boot was true and the conversion was secured.

There was a fair bit of too-and-fro after the restart, with both teams taking stabs at each other’s defence, first pushing at the middle of the field before trying to stretch one another on the wings. In a spell of sloppy play from Barnes, Hackney pushed into our territory, winning a penalty 10m out from our line on the left of the field. The game was paused while one of the Hackney players received medical attention and some very suspect face bandaging due to a bloodied nose.

We spread our forwards defensively along the try line while Hackney Ladies set up to try and crash through us. As the Hackney players started their charge, Obama was first out of the blocks, putting in an absolute bone cruncher of a tackle (the sound of the collision was audible within a 10 mile radius of the pitch) pushing them onto their heels and forcing them to play the ball out wide. Fortunately our captain had read their play well and the forwards we had distributed out to the right slowed down the inevitable swinging ball, with Hackney Ladies coming up second against our powerful pack and the Ref failing to award them a try for their efforts – although it may have been Ruth’s verbal attack on the ball (‘No! No! No!’) that prevented them from finishing the job. Some good pressure and quality rucking from our second row freed the ball, which was popped up out of the melee back into Barnes possession, allowing us to relieve some pressure and move back into our opponent’s half.

An ankle injury to one of the Hackney forwards meant that scrums remained contested but both teams dropped down to 6 players in the set piece. Tiredness began to show as infringements and penalties started to mount – though some of the calls by the Ref were potentially not to Andy’s liking and the Ref wasn’t too impressed at hearing Andy’s opinion on them either… Following an unintentional eye-gouging incident Charlotte subbed back on at tight-head.

Barnes spent the last 10 minutes of the game in Hackney’s half, but the fresh legs from our subs exposed the wear and tear on Hackney Ladies’ forwards and we held our own in the scrums better than we had all game. Fran managed another incredible break along the tram lines on the left of the field following some good handling out of the set piece, but a high tackle (or WWF style clothes-line, the jury is still out on that one) brought her down around 15m short of the line and saw a Hackney player sin binned. As the game wound down, Barnes played all of the rugby in Hackney’s half, utilising the player number advantage in the last few minutes of the game.

A final push from Barnes Ladies just a few meters off the try line resulted in the Ref awarding a penalty try for what he believed was another potentially dangerous foul by one of the Hackney Ladies – a cruel end to the game, but a welcomed points difference that could be vital further along in the season. Thankfully, the final whistle blew and the converted try meant that Barnes walked away 12 points clear with a hard earned and much needed win.

Highlights of the game:
• Thanks to Eve for her awesome physio skills and for looking after both teams so well - absolute legend!

• A big thank you to Caroline and Richard for traveling all the way from Bristol, Gareth and partner - for the chocolates as always - Peter and the rest of Ellie's awesome flat mates (beer pong rematch soon please!) as well as Jo J and Jo J’s mate, Chrissie, Jo F, the wonderful ladies at the clubhouse for feeding us and Bethan with her lovely half time oranges and post game flapjacks.

• The team was also really happy to see Rhino and a few of the other Barnes gents down at the pitch cheering for us – Rhino, we could hear that booming voice spurring us on!

• There were a lot of knocks and bashes in this game and our bodies definitely took a beating, with Jen being pounded into the ground on more than one occasion, Rosie’s head being sat on, Eleonore getting booted in the face(…yet again) and a few other big hits going in on us. We all definitely put our bodies on the line for each against a pretty powerful bunch of ladies!

• Forward of the match: A not-so-new newbie and already a try saving legend – Kaeli ‘Obama’ King.

• Back of the match: Without a doubt for the fancy feet, explosive power, try scoring skills and potentially a new career in wrestling following that tackle – Fran Blackwell.

It was an incredibly tough game and we can only imagine that Hackney will be back at Barnes on the 7th February licking their wounds and looking to exact some revenge for this defeat in the Junior Cup match. There is a lot for us to work on before then so let’s make every effort to be at training next week!