U13's Minxes - Great Progress Seen at Burton

Melbourne v Burton

The Melbourne Minxes, slightly down on numbers due to the Easter holiday, arrived at Burton and got to play on their 1st team pitch instead of the Wash. The girls got to play 4 short matches, each time borrowing 3 of the Burton girls.

Game 1
Straight from the kick off, Burton gathered Melbourne’s kick and ran straight through our defence to score. Burton then restarted and Evie replied, gathered the kick and charged straight through their defence. The Minxes just needed to get on the score sheet and came into their own as following this the girls were all seen to be putting tackles in, with some determined attack running. It wasn’t long before Melbourne were on the score sheet again with one of the Burton girls scoring on the wing; she was fast as we were to learn later when she played for Burton! Burton then put the Minxes under pressure on our try line, but Melbourne remained calm and after some determined rucking they turned the ball over and Evie kicked clear to space. The girls worked hard up the pitch passing the ball before and during contact. Emily had some very confident runs carrying the ball into contact, she was so close to scoring but was tackled short of the line, quickly turned to present and place the ball to Amy who picked and went, passing to Eleanor who crashed over the try line.
Score 6-2 tries Evie x2 Eleanor 1 (3x scored by BOT for us)

Game 2
Melbourne piled on the pressure soon into the start of the second game and were on the fringes of scoring. Abigail’s rucking paid off as she won turn over ball and managed to get the ball out with Evie crashing over the white wash. Abigail was in the thick of it again in as she quickly gathered Burton’s restart and ran hard for the line before finally passing to Evie who was in the right place to receive the ball and score. The tackles came in thick and fast from all the girls but we couldn’t stop Burton scoring in reply. The passing in this game was amazing; Emily - Amy - Alicia and back to Emily who had a cracking drive pumping her legs hard but it wasn’t her time to score, she deftly offloaded to Alicia to finish.
Score 4-5 tries Evie x3 and Alicia

Game 3
By now the Minxes had sussed out who the whippet for Burton was but they couldn’t stop her, so when the restart kick went straight to her she broke through and scored. Support running from Abigail, Amy, Eleanor and Alicia meant Evie had options when she was stopped in her tracks, Alicia taking the ball and a try to Melbourne. Evie then had a cracking run up the left wing and everyone thought she was over but for a good tackle from Burton who without warning ripped the ball from her, the determination on Evie’s face to try and win the ball back nearly worked but it wasn’t to be – good tackle in trying though.
Score 3-3 tries Alicia, Evie (BOT playing for us)

Game 4
With no opportunity for replacement, tiredness was setting in and at times we saw some girls stood watching rather than support running “just in case”. Alicia and Eleanor however remained composed and the training of the leg drive came to fruition - Alicia had players hanging off her before off-loading to let Eleanor score. The final game saw Amy really show off her talents at scrum half putting real pressure on Burton’s scrum half, sneakily stealing the ball not once but three times from the back of their scrum. Abigail showed her determination yet again with a strong run before getting tackled but she was quickly in the long place position and with superb rucking allowing Emily to pick and charge for the line – Try!
Score 4-3 tries Eleanor, Evie, Emily (BOT I think scored the other one)

Great to play rugby after several weeks of rain and Easter Eggs. Progress is evident week-on-week and it really is exciting to see what this great bunch of girls are capable of. Well done all!