Convincing win for Crowborough & Heathfield u14's girls

After what felt like a long Christmas break and some restful time away from rugby, the excitement to be back at Steel Cross for the combo of Crowborough and Heathfield’s girls first home game of 2024 against the developmental squad of Old Reigatian’s U14 girls, was palpable.

The slight frost we felt a few days before had melted away to leave a beautiful winter morning in its wake. It was perfect rugby weather and pitch A was looking resplendent, bathed in the golden rays of the mid January sun and watched over by an excited and expectant crowd.

Before the match kicked off both sides were given a guard of honour by an excited group of our very own mini’s. They cheered and clapped both teams onto the pitch with some gusto which made the players days. Huge thanks goes out to the guard of honour and Chris Keene who was behind it’s orchestration. A lovely unexpected touch to proceedings so thank you!

With Old Reigatians being a few players short, it gave our finishers the opportunity to help out which is never an easy task but all of our girls who donned the green bib played for them for did so with maximum effort to help our opponents. Some true grass roots ruby spirit on show!
Not only does it support the broader rugby family but it gave everyone a full run out and game experience.

Crowborough / Heathfield got proceeding underway with a huge kick off from Chloe. Old R’s replied with some early pressure in the form of some excellent breakdown work and were very strong in the rucks. They recycled the ball well from their breakdown which tested the Crowfield defence which held strong. This early pressure seemed to take Crowfield by surprise as Old R’s progressed steadily up the pitch.

The pressure was eased as we stared to wake up in the ruck and we turned the ball over. Lauren Martin picked from the base of the winning ruck and launched herself into an attacking run down the right hand side. She was being chased down well by the defenders but with Megan Wiseman’s supporting run, Megan took the offload and no-one was able to stop her dotting down under the posts for the first term of the day.
5 - 0 Crowfield!
Nelly Jupp stepped up and slotted the conversion with ease. 7 - 0.

Old R’s restarted and now we had a score under our belts, the handbrake came off! Our rucking improved as the half went on and a little inexperience on their side meant penalty to Crowborough. Nelly went for touch but the kick fell a few metres short. Quick thinking from Poppy Rodriguez meant that we were able to apply immediate pressure to the clearance and force an error which led to the first scrum of the day.

With a few new additions to the scrum we saw pack debutants Isobel Kirby and Alana Kirkness-O’Boyle experience their first match scrums. With two great additions to the pack we saw Crowfield dominate most of the scrums for the day. Chloe Bains picked from the base of the scrum and went for a gap but was tackled before she could make it over the line. We set and excellent ruck up which gave Megan the opportunity to spot a gap in their defence, grab the ball and get over the try line again!
12 - 0. Another great kick from Nelly secured a commanding lead of 14 - 0.

Old R to restart with a kick off directly into the arms of Jessica Vos who was also playing in a different position for the first time. Jess immediately made metres and spread the ball to Alana who went on a number of these marauding runs down the right hand side. Another great supporting run from Zoe Voss (also playing in a new position for the first time) was on hand to take the offload to score in the corner. Nelly had her work cut out to make this kick as it was right in the corner so the score rose to 19 - 0.

It was Alana to return the ball for this restart and another powerful run to eat up the metres from her until she was tackled. A few phases later and Lauren was on hand to pick up rom the breakdown to dart over the line right under the posts. Nelly continued some excellent kicking form to make the score 26 - 0.

At this point in the game we offered up our one sub to Old Reigatians to give them the extra player as their heads were starting to drop and this was more about preserving their spirit than score as it was clear that Crowfield were coming out on top of this game. Willow Mecham has no hesitation to get involved for them. Regardless of the colour of shirt, it’s all good game experience.

Rather than receive the ball we opted to kick back to them for the restart. With the extra player it seemed to even up the game a little bit but the red and white still showed their mettle by going over again with Chloe Bains adding to the tries and Nelly, once again slotting the kick. 33 - 0.

Old R put some late pressure on deep in the first half and really started to test our defence once again. There were some big hits made by our forwards especially Freya from Heathfield in her second ever game for us. Another fairly new player, Poppy made arguably a try saving tackle about 5 metres out from our try line and with a big Herculean effort, our defensive ruck turned the ball over for Chloe to kick a great clearance to ease the pressure which led to a few more phases and a try for Daisy Howes. Nelly (again!) Sticking the kick to end the first half Crowfield 40 - 0 up. What a half!

With a big score on the board we moved some of the more experienced players over to Old R’s to bolster their team and that gave us the opportunity to try a few new things out. We immediately saw a change in the game with some good pressure from Old R’s leading to a penalty. They kicked to touch for the first line out of the game.

Poppy Rodriguez who had a great game for us for the first half showed no mercy as she finished off a move for Old R’s and scored for the opposition. Great effort Poppy! 40 - 5.
It wasn’t long until they had scored again to start the comeback. No conversions for either scores but a slow, clawing back of the scores was starting. 40 - 10.

Crowfield realised they thought it was already in the bag so shook themselves out of a temporary slow down to come back with some great phased rugby with alert rucks and good pod work from the forwards and quick ball with Sophia coming in at scrum half for the second half feeding the backs. It wasn’t long before this heralded results as Megan saw a gap, lit her afterburners and scored after a wide run and didn’t stop until was under the posts. Surprise surprise, Nelly converted again to make the score 47 - 10.

Lauren Martin made a break late in the second half but was stopped short of the try line and a battle in midfield ensued. Both teams were trading the ball and metres until Daisy saw an opportunity, pinned her ears back and went for a 60+ metre run fending off defenders as she went and scored our eighth try of the game. Another successful kick made the score 52 - 10 to Crowfield.

Two late tries for Old Reigatians sealed a fantastic performance and a fantastic win for the combination team of Crowborough and Heathfield. The first win of the season which will hopefully lead to many more for the remainder of the year.

The gallery were impressed with the girls effort and showed this by being in fabulous voice supporting these strong, determined young women who are really starting to shape themselves into a great rugby outfit. The visitors had voted for Chloe Bains as their player of the match who had a commanding game for us in the first half and them in the second.
The coaches player of the match award went to Jessica Vos who was not only her normal “tackling machine” self in defence, but was playing in a new position and really bossed it at fly half.

In summary, great day, great result, great spirit and great performance all round.