A perfect SUN-day for rugby!

East Sussex Barbarians 48 – 29 Crowborough RFC & Heathfield RFC

Hot off the back of the premiere of the season, Crowborough and Heathfield under 14’s girls team made the short trip to the beach this weekend to play the East Sussex Barbarians made up of Uckfield, Hastings and Seaford teams.

The glorious sunshine was great for the plentiful travelling support who were in splendid voice to support the Red and White hoops but it did mean that things were rather hard underfoot still, making for a some uncomfortable landings in the game.

Numbers wise, Crow-field were able to put out a squad of 16 players for this game which included 3 debutants who all put in a brilliant account of themselves for their first ever games of rugby. Well done to Zoe Voss, Emily Buckwell and Poppy Rodriguez.

After a slight delay to kick off in the balmy heat of Seaford Rec, Crowborough opted to kick off with Heathfield’s Nelly Jupp doing the honours. In very similar fashion to the Hove match, the Crows went about their business to win back the ball. Both teams battled well for the ball in midfield until Daisy Howes separated ball and opponent with a huge show of strength to win back possession in the Bar Bar’s half. Daisy went onto set up the first try of the game with a deft offload only for Megan Wiseman to effortlessly cover 40 metres and cross the line in the corner and have the wherewithal to dot down under the posts. Nelly did the business with the conversion and within 3 minutes the combo of Crowborough and Heathfield were seven points to the good.

All was going well until we had our first casualty of the day. Our pack was working hard to punch through the Bar Bar’s resilient defence, but it was slow progress. Sensing this, our fly half Isobel Kirby, moved the ball out wide to get the backline firing into action. The ball and ground were bone dry but the slickness of passing on display, you’d be forgiven for thinking the ball had been shot out of a greased cannon. Having shifted the ball quickly from 10 through to the wing we weren’t far away from doubling the score when Layla Cheek took a heavy collision in the tackle and had to come off. Up until that point she had played a blinder and was crunching into the tackles. Pretty good going for game number 2. Emily Buckwell came on to replace Layla. Although Emily has trained with us for some time this was her very first game of rugby and she threw herself into the action as soon as she was on.

The Barbars’s scored 2 tries and converted one at the end of the first quarter to make it a close 12 – 7 to them. They had broken the defensive line twice with some strong runners.

Second quarter started very well. More impressive work by the dominant pack kept punching holes in the Barbar defence and Jessica Vos broke through to touch down with aplomb in the far corner to equal the score at 12-12. This angle proved too much even for the boot of Nelly and we didn’t convert this try.

Crowfield got the bit between their teeth after equalising the scoreboard and there was a lot of heart shown by both teams in this exciting game of rugby. Once again sensing some space on the outside, Isobel called the play to move the ball wide and Megan “whizzy” Wiseman was on the ball and looked unstoppable only to be just nudged into touch and denied her second try in the match.
Another replacement needed in the first half with Alana Kirkness-O’Boyle having to come off to be replaced by Lexie Cheek. Alana had shown the same powerful and direct running she offered in the first game.

The Barbars repeated their scoring pattern of the first quarter with two tries and one conversion to bring the game to pause at half time with the scores at 24-12. For the rugby that was on show, you might argue to score flattered them slightly as we had been playing some excellent rugby with ball in hand.

Another injury forced another replacement just before halftime with Lauren Martin being rested for another debutant, Zoe Voss. Zoe came into the pack and made an already powerful scrum even stronger. Well done for Willow trying out at no.8. Great job for your first run out in that position.

We were planning to give Lily a rest as she had been suffering from a cold in the week but with Lauren off injured, Lily carried on and was immense in her support running and ball carrying despite a few days laid up in bed. Superb determination Lily!

The second half kicked off and a bruised and battered Crowborough took the brunt of some ruthless running by the Barbars as they ran in 17 unanswered points in the third quarter. We wont dwell on this part of the game.

Daisy had to come off after a knock to the ankle and with our bench looking like something from the walking dead we had no choice but to drop numbers after a brave attempt by Lauren to try and come back on, it was clear she wasn’t 100% so very quickly she was back off and both teams were down to 12 players.

So, last period of the game, a few points down and a few players down. What could go wrong!

Ah. Barbars scored again early in the last period making it 48 – 12. But.... this seemed to galvanise the Crowfield combined team and there was a burst of energy, strength, courage and down right grit which came from within each and every girl to come back and come back strong in the final knockings of the game.
We saw some fantastic fight from the forwards, especially from our second row Nadia LaFlemming in the rucks. Not only great spirit and strength but her technique was bang on and there was no one on the park who was going to shove her off the ball. With the forwards winning the ball on the floor it was the job of scrum half Sophia to distribute the ball which was done without error. Sophia had been given about 3 minutes training to play this position and she fulfilled the brief brilliantly.

Zoe Voss was on the ball and getting involved a lot for her first ever appearance and this persistence and refusal to hit the deck was rewarded as she broke three tackles to score her first ever try. Fantastic job Zoe.

Daisy was back on the pitch after resting the ankle which was greeted by celebration and cheers from the team. Not long after this we scored again in the corner after a flowing move through the backs with amazing hands all the way from Isobel, through Poppy to Emily (both debutants) the onto Nelly (second game ever but looked like a seasoned pro) and with Megan on the wing finishing off the move with her second try of the game.

The bit was firmly back in our teeth now. With only a few minutes left on the clock and some very hot and tired players out there we witnessed almost a carbon copy of the previous try. A swift , flowing backs move unleashed Megan on the wing and with pace to burn, Megan streaked past their defence as if they were standing still and scored her third try of the day. 2nd game – first hattrick. Not bad for someone who joined us in the summer!
Nelly made the conversion which bought the game to the end.

Final whistle, East Sussex Barbarians 48 – Crowborough and Heathfield 29.
Thoughts turned to player of the match. Our team unanimously and in almost one voice declared “grey shorts” the winner for the Barbar’s. Their players had picked Nelly Jupp for their players player (two games, two awards!) and for the coaches’ player of the match, this was a tough game to call as so many performances stood out. We had three newbies who were all in with a shout considering it was their first game and how well they all played. Daisy had a strong game; Nadia’s dominance in the ruck was second to none; Zoe’s power in her running; Emily, Jess and Layla’s tackling; Poppy, Lexie and Layla’s support running; Alana and Lily’s ball carrying .....it was all too much. But, after a quick discussion we all agreed that this games Coaches Player of the Match should go to Sophia Colley for her putting herself outside of her comfort zone and trying, not only a new position but a really key position of scrum half with about 3 minutes practice.

Onwards and upwards as we continue to build on this great platform. We look forward to the next match where we hope the Horsham pitches will be a little softer by the 5th November.