Herts 7's

Basildon & Rochford U14's

Sunday 20th May, saw the penultimate Festival of the season take place at Welwyn Rugby Club.

Basildon & Rochford U14 and U17 teams both topped their respective pools with convincing wins over their opponents to reach the Premier Cup competition.

The U17's Started well by beating an Eastern Furies side which is derived from the best of the Eastern Counties girls 22-10.

This was shortly followed by a 20-10 victory over Aylesbury & Milton Keynes, which like Eastern Furies, is a combination side derived from the best players at each club.

Having topped the group, the girls then faced Kettering in the semi final. Basford led 10-7 at half time, but a couple of fine opportunist runs from Kettering saw them edge the game 10-19.

Try Scorers for "Basford"

Rachel "The Flying Winger" French 3

Cherelle"Dominating the line out" Alphonse 2

Sarah "Centre Muncher" MCB 1

Natalie"Scares the opposition" McClarnon 2

Sarah"Dont pass,kick,run,just bosh"Carman 1

Sam "The elusive giggler"Smith 1

well done also to the other team members

Sophie"Yes my Lady" Russell

Gemma "Rhino" Sommers

Charlie"wheres the boys" Micallef

Stacey "Having a blond moment "Law

Siobhan "shivvy" Allison

Well done girls!

The U14's started their campain with a resounding 37-5 victory over Worcester with tries from Meg, Mouse, Alex and Layla (2) with Yasmin converting 4 kicks.

Their 2nd pool game saw them up against Hertford. Some dominant forwards play and some sublime backs moves saw them run out 37-0 victors. Again some lovely tries by Jess, Alex(2) and Layla(2) with Yasmin again converting 4 of her kicks.

The Semi Final saw them up against a well drilled Spalding side (unbeaten this season) who had reached the semi final with some convincing wins of their own by playing some quick expansive rugby.

Half time saw Spalding lead by 7-0 thanks to a well worked try and conversion.However the "Basford" girls soon had the scores level following a lovely try by Layla after some terrific support play across the pitch, Yasmin duly slotted her conversion to set up a tense last few minutes.

With time ebbing away, some strong play by the forwards allowed Alex to break for the line and dive over for the winning try just as the ref was ready to blow for full time.

With a final score of 12-7 the girls had made it to their 2nd final this season.

The final against Cramberleigh proved to be a hard fought encounter, and when Meg broke through after a couple of minutes to score in the corner, an upset looked to be on the cards.

However that mighty machine that is Cramberleigh stepped up a gear and dominated the game from that point.

Despite some excellent defending from our girls, it couldnt stop the inevitable and the final score of 42-5 to Cramberleigh didn't do justice to the stirling performance given by the girls.

Well done to all the girls for putting on a magnificent show of rugby and congratulations to Cramberleigh who were worthy winners.

A very special thank you should also go to all at Welwyn Rugby club for organising a fantastic day of rugby.

Thanks Peter and all the team from all at Basildon & Rochford.

Who ever takes on the mantle next year has a hard act to follow!!!!!!