Minxes Minxes U13s

11 minxes turned up this afternoon at Mansfield RFC, 7 available to play for the u13s, 2 injured team mates and an u10 along to support the girls as well as an u15 who refereed 2 games for us. We also accommodated Cara, and u13 from Chesterfield who turned up on spec.

Match one
The first match was against Boston. After our last encounter with them we were desperate not to be defeated again. So we tried our best to keep our defensive line and make as many runs down to our try line as possible. We were undone by a Boston team that although were quite new as a team were clearly well used to handling the ball. Several tries were scored against the minxes by Bostons athletic backs who were just too big and powerful for our girls to hold on to. To the minxes credit, they were very strong in the maul where it Boston had to commit up to 4 girls to stop our 2 several times, with Izzy, Yves and Skye getting involved. Had Boston been picked up for this infringement (only 2 allowed in rucks and mauls) Melbourne would have surely scored tries and evened the game up significantly. Sadly, we lost 7-0.

Match two
The next match was against Mansfield team 1. Learning from the first game was delivered positively by Ronnie and Lydia (Who was on the side-line due to an injury) the girls took this on board and applied it in the next game against the first of 2 Mansfield teams, defending higher up the pitch in a good strong flat line. Rucking was good, something that has been lacking in previous years and indeed several times the girls won the ball when they had no real right to. After many rucks and mauls, the ball rolled away from play allowing Lauren Rickett to pounce and score herself a try on more than one occasion. Following Lauren's example Skye Sloman scored a try at the edge of the pitch after running through the opposition. After leading the game they found themselves behind by 4 tries to 3 when the ref called 'last play', the girls stepped up to the plate with a final try scored by Yves Delaney after she applied pressure to the ball that was held up in a mall. In the end we drew 4-4.

Match three
The final match was against Mansfield team 2. More learning in the break between games again was taken well into the final game against the second Mansfield team where, alongside the previous learning points some immense tackling was shown against some much bigger and stronger girls to even the game up, although the game was lost in the end. We had a flashback to the previous match when Skye Sloman and Lauren Rickett scored a runaway try each. However after our hard work we lost the game 6-2.

Try Scorers
Yves Delaney
Lauren Rickett 3
Skye Sloman 3

Dame of the Game
Izzy Boyer