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Sun 18 May 2014
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Fordingbridge Rugby Club
Ladies
Fordingbridge ladies win at final touch event of the series

Fordingbridge ladies win at final touch event of the series

Angela Mouland19 May 2014 - 21:18
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Fordingbridge ladies fought their way to win the last event of the 2013-2014 South Hampshire Ladies Touch Rugby Series.

The sixth, and final, round of the South Hampshire Ladies Touch Rugby Series 2013-2014 was held at Fareham Heathens today. The team started in a particularly nervous mood. We had 9 players, which is fantastic, as it’s the most we’ve had all season!!! But this meant that there was more pressure on everyone to do well today and, with the worry of the heat of the day, we were all feeling it.

Our first match was against Andover, a team who have done particularly well this season. Although they started with low numbers, they already had experienced players on their team and their squad has slowly grown throughout this season. The Fordingbridge ladies were nervous for this match, as how we performed in this game would give us an idea of how we were going to fair throughout today’s event. We worked well, with a good defence, but also being brave in trying to create a few chances to get the ball out. A very well timed pass from Angela Mouland meant that our top try scorer, Sarah Gorman, was able to run down the side of the pitch to score our first try of the afternoon. This put a huge injection of confidence into the team and although we didn’t score another try against Andover, we did not concede any and the game ended 1-0 to Fordingbridge.

Our second match was against Fareham Heathen Hags’ first team. This was a disappointing game, as although we held a good defence against them, a Hag player managed to break free and avoid three Fordingbridge ladies to put the ball down over the try line. However, a great line by Georgie Price prevented another Hag player running down the line to score another try and the game ended 1-0 to Fareham Hags’ 1s.

Our third match was against our favourites, US Portsmouth. This team have been an amazing support to us this season, lending us players on a few events and also hosting the event that could not be held at Fordingbridge Rec due to the flooding of the pitches. US Portsmouth have an incredible enthusiasm and resilience for rugby and although they started with a low ability at the touch events their skills and numbers have grown considerably over the past two seasons and over this season they have really started to ‘put up a fight’ in their games. Therefore, we also went into this game with the mind-set that we shouldn’t underestimate them. However, we did play more of an attacking game, which paid off, as we won 2-0. It was a fun game and the Bridge ladies were excited as we had six of the ‘original’ team that used to play contact 15s a couple of years ago, as Emy Fairbairn, who had come along as a supporter, joined us for half of the game.

Our fourth game was against Totts and Ellingham & Ringwood Terrors. This team have been incredible throughout the series, winning all of the events they’ve played in this season and were the series leaders going into today’s event. We were particularly nervous about playing The Terrors and decided that we needed to have a defensive game plan, to ensure as few tries as possible got past us. However, as the game progressed, we increased in confidence and started to create chances for us. One of these chances paid off, as Sarah Gorman, yet again, scored a try, helping us to win the match 1-0.

The fifth and final game we played today was against the Fareham Heathen Hags Development team. We were a little worried playing against this team, as they had done particularly well in the last round, at Tottonians. We knew we could score tries against them, but we needed a large number of tries to help put us in a good position for the top spots of today’s event. We fought hard and scored two tries in the first half and two in the second half, three of which were scored by returning player, Carla Lee, and one scored by Sarah Gorman.

Everyone played their absolute best today and it was great to have both new and old players on the pitch, adding to the diversity of skills and ability. Georgie Price led the team with great organisation and a booming voice, as always! And played her usual game of setting up a lot of the tries that were seen today!

After the five games were played, we knew we were in contention for the second place of today’s event, knowing that we would have broken The Terrors winning streak for the afternoon. However, we were completely shocked when it was announced that we’d won today’s event! It was a fantastic way to finish the season and just demonstrates that power Fordingbridge ladies had behind it when we have a suitable number of players to be able to have substitutions and give choice to our game play.

Overall, Fordingbridge ladies came fourth in the South Hampshire Ladies Touch Rugby 2013-2014 Series. This is a great achievement, considering the struggle we have had in fielding a team at each event and the ladies should be proud of their performances throughout the season. The series was won by Tottonians and Ellingham & Ringwood Terrors. Second place went to Fareham Heathen Hags’ 1s team and third place went to Andover. Thanks to Kieran Spencer, from the RFU, for organising and running the series and to all the teams who have hosted the events throughout the season. Great fun has been had by all!! Fordingbridge ladies are looking forward to next season and what it might bring!

Match details

Match date

Sun 18 May 2014

Kickoff

14:00
Team overview
Further reading

Team Sponsors

Ladies Shirt Sponsor - Marlin Marquees