U13 minxes support South Notts Sapphires

Melbourne v West Bridgford
A rare morning fixture took us over the A52 to West Bridgford RFC, home of the South Notts Sapphires girls; West Bridgford and Notts Moderns combined numbers last season and are now looking to develop both the game and the girls.
The minxes arrived with good numbers 13 plus Abigail Watson as spectator and match reporter (due to a dance show in the afternoon she didn’t want to risk playing and turning up with a black eye). Sapphires had 6 girls and we were led to believe they were relatively new to the game and nervous about playing us. Melbourne supported the Sapphires by giving them 4 girls for each quarter of the game and coach John led their team talks at the end of each quarter thus allowing Sapphires coach Caroline time to work with their U15’s.
Q1. Melbourne dominated this quarter and at times Sapphires looked a little shell shocked.
Notes from Abigail; Eva good catch at restart kick, Delia good tackle playing for Sapphires, Eleanor great rucking and mauling, Emily fast chase from restart kick passing to Amy to score, Evie good tackles, Abbie good support play, Mya good mauling and Eve ferocious ripping.
Score: Melbourne 7 – Sapphire 1
Q2. A quick change of players and coaching tips and advice by coach John appeared to give the Sapphires some passion and they were now competing at the ruck and looked more confident running with ball in hand.
Notes from Abigail; Delia good ripping, Emily great support play, Eva fantastic strong run and moving the ball well between lots of hands, Olivia in the thick of things and great rucking, Fearn great run up the wing to score, Maddie great restart kick, Alicia strong driving maul.
Score: Melbourne 3 – Sapphires 0
Q3. Coach John made the decision to make some more changes to strengthen the Sapphires side and this showed the depth in the Melbourne side as they managed to hold their own and score some cracking tries.
Notes from Abigail; Main comments about support play from Emily, Eva and Maddie which culminated in a super try (even if her dad missed it!), tackle of the day was from Kezia who tracked Evie back the length of the pitch and bought her down on the try line – cracking tackle.
Score: Melbourne 5 – Sapphires 2
Q4. The final game saw Melbourne putting the pressure back on the Sapphires with great rucking and counter rucking. Our driving mauls were effective and new minx Abbie showed her strength as she charged for the try line with players hanging off her.
The score line doesn’t do Sapphires the justice they deserve as they grew into the game and this saw several Melbourne spectators willing them on as we can all see the potential they have.