The Melbourne Minxes U13s had a fight on their hands against totemic and well-drilled Burtonians. But it was just what we needed - and you know what, we kept on going.
New pockets of girls rugby erupting all around us, and now a new emerging girls rugby setup at nearby Amber Valley Club (https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/ambervalley/) joined with us to form a full squad to take on Burton at the new RFU Rugby365 4G pitch in Derby.

Arriving at the RFU AGP, Luke Green Derbyshire RDO advised us that Amber Valley were coming down to join us and they had 3-4 girls at U13. This cluster enabled the girls to play 12 a side something they haven’t done since our festival back in November. Melbourne girls welcomed them to the side and enjoyed a focused warm up.
Game 1
Melbourne started off strong with some determined tackles but it was soon Burton on the score sheet through good handling and side stepping. Burton were soon attacking again and Melbourne just couldn’t seem to get amongst them to steal the ball. Their whippet from last week was out on the wing and even though the girls had learnt from last week not to kick the ball to her Burton soon passed the ball out to wing and she was off and over. Melbourne did have some courageous attempts and Annabelle was nearly through but just got pushed into touch one more than one occasion. Amy had another good game at scrum half keeping her eyes peeled and stealing their ball when it suddenly popped out our side of the scrum. The girls’ heads didn’t drop and Annabelle managed to find a line break and charged for the line.
Melbourne 1 (Annabelle) BOT 7
Game 2
Burton piled on the pressure from the kick off and quickly distributed the ball between hands, this coupled with determined running saw them break the line again. Melbourne at times were waiting for Burton to run at them rather than closing their space down so coach James encouraged the girls to run up as a line and apply pressure on the Burton pass this soon made Burton knock the ball on - Scrum to Melbourne. Abigail’s hooking at scrum half was exceptional today as she won nearly every Melbourne scrum while also hooking Burton’s scrums on more than one occasion. Melbourne kept putting the tackles despite some fend offs from Burton. Emily’s try came from a free kick awarded to Melbourne as the referee had seen one to many Burton hand offs; a quick tap from Abigail to Emily enabled her to charge for the line and over.
Melbourne 1 (Emily) BOT 6
Game 3
This was the best game of the afternoon, the ferocity from Burton was taking its toll on Melbourne and they were hurting but this made our girls even more determined. Amy managed to rip and steal the ball and passed to Eleanor who made a few yards before going to ground, Annabelle seemed to be covering every corner of the pitch and worked hard both in attack and defence. Eve returning from injury received the ball and ran up the wing before getting tackled but Olivia was there in support to carry on her good work before passing to Alicia who finally passed to one of our Amber Valley friends to score. It was in this game that Burton were now getting pinged by the referee for having 3+ girls in a maul or being off side at the scrum so Melbourne were awarded a couple off free kicks close to their try line. Repeated attempts were made to charge the line but the girls had forgotten to dive for the line so kept getting tackled. It was in these attempts that the girls got battered and bruised, getting stamped or knelt on but they didn’t give up.
Melbourne 1 (AV) Burton 3
Game 4
The final game showed the passion and determination our girls have, they didn’t give up and managed to win a couple of scrums through Burtons knock-ons.
Melbourne 0 – Burton 3

Hardest game of the season so far girls, but just think where you will be this time next season having had a season of experience under your belts.