Depleted U13s show their strength or spirit

9 girls were available to travel to Mansfield to take part in a todays matches with Ashfield, Coalville and Long Eaton. Due to the low numbers from the other 3 clubs, 4 each, it was decided to loan us one player and play as 3 10-a-side teams. Up stepped Amy from Ashfield who offered to help us play 10-a-side and she was a great addition.

The games were great demonstrations of our girls abilities and desire to keep going, even when the games became very messy and a little bit disjointed. It would be difficult to give you a game by game play for both games because there was just too much to talk about but here are a few points that brought smiles to the parents and coaches on the sideline.

Minxes v Mansfield
It seems that the hour trying to keep warm during a cold Sunday afternoon didn't warm up our players minds, it took a couple of quick trys from Mansfield before they did. Suddenly something switched on in the heads of the likes of Jamee Griffiths and Izzy Boyer with Jamee's enthusiasm causing her to make a few rookie mistakes - this may seem unfair to mention with so many of the new girls also doing the same BUT Jamee's frustration for being picked up was then turned in to the reason why she became so effective in the 2nd game and that is the reason she had to be mentioned. Plenty of sideways running and some misdirected passes meant that the girls were left unable to highlight too many positives at half time but came up with plenty of areas that they wanted to improve and boy did they do just that.

Erin Scollen woke up and made a few of the Mansfield girls wide eyed as she started to dominate the break down more in her recognisable pink scrum cap. This helped feed the likes of Charlotte Easton, whose quick hands feeding Abi Taylor, whose ability to catch one of the balls from behind her head was very impressive, showed why we feel that she will make an amazing centre. This kept the Mansfield girls in our girls control when in attack and allowed us to punch holes their defence when we were on the attack.

Minxes v BaaBaas
Erin, who was voted as Melbourne Dame of the Game by the other sides, showed that the size of your heart and fight is not always matched by the size of the player. This girl was everywhere playing great as a scrum half but this was only possible because of the likes of her scrum cap partner Amy Newman, who wows us all by stealing balls and holding off bigger girls than her at rucks. One not to be overshadowed is Skye Sloman who is also one who is not easily stopped as she made run after run down the sideline causing the BaaBaas headaches. With Skye on one wing and Abi on the other the BaaBaas didn't know which side to defend meaning that they had to work hard to switch from one side to the other. This played in to the advantage of both of our wingers with them bagging themselves a handful of trys each.

The second half was chance to appreciate the hard work of Ella Abraham, who seems to be going strength to strength each week, not only on the ball but off of it too. She kept her defensive line well, put in tackles when needed and suddenly during the 2nd half of this game made big strides forward. Her power and presence can be intimidating to anyone in her way, add that to the dominants of Izzy and suddenly the BaaBaas had to think about the middle of the pitch and the wings. The second half really was all about our girls and their ability to control and manage a game. If we keep playing like this and improving like this then the future of our club will be in great hands.