Guernsey Ladies vs Barnes Ladies - 17th September 2016

Last weekend saw us finally cutting our teeth in the National Conference 1 league with our first actual game of the competition against Guernsey Ladies. As we were traveling, we made sure we got a good weekend out of it and some of us (even the few who were meant to be traveling from City Airport but missed their flights) arrived on Friday evening to wonderful apartments that Tracey had sourced for us right on the waterfront in Vazon Bay – thanks again for organising like a boss.

The rest of the team met us at the very modern Foote’s Lane sports complex on Saturday morning, fresh off their flight and raring to go. After a lovely surprise of some new away kit and a quick strategy talk by Coach Nat, we trotted onto the field into the sunshine for a quick warm up.

Our hosts had impressive numbers, and their squad all looked up for a game in the warm weather. They’d started their season with a comprehensive away win at Worthing and from the off, their composure and efficiency started to show as they ran in a try against us within a few minutes of the game kicking off. The nerves of playing our first proper league match against one of the toughest teams in our group were evident in the first quarter of the game, as Guernsey Ladies seemed to capitalise on our missed tackles and tentative rucking, running in a few more tries in relatively quick succession.

After the fourth try, we started to compose ourselves a bit better and managed to maintain possession of the ball. Now that we’d had our first few hits and taken in some contact the cobwebs slowly started clear away and we found the physicality we needed to fend them off.

For the following 25 minutes of the game we kept them away from the try line. Roishi and Rosie set about tackling from the front, while Ise, Madalena and Amelia covered the back of the pitch, with some spectacular tackling from the Ise and Mads despite it being their first full game of 15’s rugby ever. We also had a stab at their defenses, with Taz crashing the ball down the middle and gaining yards, while Leah and Em sniped around the edges.

A really solid passage of play between the backs saw a strong push down the left of the pitch just along the Guernsey Ladies’ 13 channel. There were two attempts with some big fend offs and fast feet which brought us to within a few meters of the try line. If this is what our newbies can do in their first game, we can’t wait to see how they’ll perform over the rest of the season. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get through Guernsey’s defensive line and the half drew to close.

The second half started quite strongly, with a line out stolen and our set pieces holding strong. The scrum is worth mentioning, as we knew before we landed on the island that it was likely to be a formidable pack that we’d be up against. The Guernsey Ladies definitely use their scrums as a weapon, and looking at the size of our front line alone must have had their forwards thinking it would be an easy day at the office. But we didn’t let them off the hook and we held steady against their imposing pack, with Kaeli even getting the better of one of their put-ins just for good measure.

Unfortunately, we did start to get tired, and the big hits were beginning to take their toll, with injuries starting to mount and Guernsey Ladies crossing through our defensive lines. The fresh legs in the second half did make a great impact though, with some solid hits from Ruth and Ian in beast mode. Amelia and Jen tried to push up on the right of the pitch but were cut down quickly and a few turnovers in the midfield gave Guernsey some easy opportunities to sneak through.

But we weren’t to be denied, and following a rumbling forwards drive, grinding down phase-after-phase and with only a few minutes left on the clock, we managed to get close enough to the try line for Em to pick the ball off the back of a ruck and fight her way through a few Guernsey defenders to narrowly dot the ball down over her shoulder on the edge of the whitewash. It did feel good to walk away without giving up a clean sheet. Shortly after, the ref blew his whistle and the game was up.

Back in the clubhouse, the celebrations kicked off in honour of our very own ‘Ginger B*tch’ for her 30th birthday. Guernsey Ladies were incredibly accommodating hosts, making sure that we had a cake to help celebrate, and they also joined in the questionable birthday singing as Barnes Ladies notched up another boat race victory at the bar.

Highlights of the game:
• Em’s first real go at playing 9, with Nat still providing coaching tips on how to deal with lineouts up until right before the starting whistle.
• Our three newest additions to the backs: Tazine, Iseline and Madalena, taking up centre, full back and wing positions on the field respectively – and nailing it too.
• Our forward of the match, Roishi who played a blinder of a game
• Mr and Mrs Stone making the journey all the way out to the island to show their support
• Our resident statistician Rhi, for keeping track of our on field antics to help us focus our training in the weeks to come.
• Tracey for organising the best away game weekend we could have asked for – including the after party drinks and the Sunday morning surfing lessons to help clear the hangovers away.
• Andy for the whistle stop to support us and help us stay composed –we probably could have done without the juvenile balloon popping, but the selfies were a treat!
• And finally, despite missing the first flight out on Friday evening, and having to sneak onto the later flight from Gatwick just to make sure all our kit arrived – Nat, for spoiling us with the new away kit which everyone loved regardless of the sizing issues. Who would have thought that Barnes Ladies would reach such lofty heights that we’d actually have a home kit and an away kit?!?!

Our next league fixture is against Lewes at home on 2nd October, although I believe there might be a match this weekend if Tracey can organise it with Sutton and Epsom’s development squad – if you’re keen to have a run out this Sunday check Facebook for details of that friendly.

I’m sure Nat and Andy will have a lot of things for us to work on ahead of our next league game, not to mention the first round of cup games starting on the 9th October. Let’s do what we can to be consistently attending training, which will be every Tuesdays and on any Thursdays ahead of a weekend that we have a game – whether that’s a friendly or otherwise. Also, if you played last weekend, don’t forget to provide Nat with the list he asked us for (one good thing we did and two things we want to work on going forward) as it will help the coaches to deliver targeted training sessions with us.