A group of seven girls from Years 8-10 headed to King Edwards school, where the annual Touch Rugby Tournament was being hosted for six teams. This was the second year that this tournament had been held and after the success of last year’s event the girls were very excited to play! For most of the girls, who were quite new to rugby, this was the first time they had ever played competitively before.
Altogether the girls played in five mini matches and our first game was against King Edwards B team. Despite not having much experience of working together as a team, the girls played incredibly well. The older, more experienced players made sure they supported some of the younger girls and they built momentum into playing fantastic rugby. The overall score was a 2-1 win for The Friary.
After gaining the victory in the first game, the girls were starting to display more confidence and were getting to grips with the rules of the game. They played against Cathedral team and due to their excellent off-loading and line speed, the girls came away with the 1-1 draw!
The next opponents were King Edwards A team. Once again, the girls played their socks off (especially with a player down). Their agility and fantastic footwork led to breaks in the oppositions defence line and resulted in gaining a try. The final score was 1-0.
Our last game was against Cannock Chase. This was the toughest match for The Friary girls as Cannock were a very skilful and dominate team, who hadn’t lost a game. The girls put up a good fight and focused on their defensive line to stop the opposition form breaking through. Unfortunately, we had a one player down – playing with only six girls and as a result this made it very difficult to defend against Cannock. The final result was 2-1 to Cannock.
Hollie Wright, team coach, said: “The girls finished in second place overall in the tournament and should be very proud of their selves as they demonstrated a range of advanced skills as well as team-work and determination. It was wonderful watch the girls progress after each match and become stronger as a team. Try scorers of the tournament for Friary were Hannah Grimshaw, Hannah Norton and Addison Everiss. Thank you for the girls for participating and it was great to see so many girls involved in rugby and wanting to give it a go. We hope to see more fixtures for girls’ rugby in the future.”
