With the lack of a league in Sussex for our Under 18 Girls team, it had been a while since they had run out into battle in a competitive fixture. The last time they did was the excellent display against Old Reigatians back in November so this roving reporter hasn’t had loads to do recently.

We join the action on a very chilly Lewes morning at what appeared to be an almost abandoned Stanley Turner Ground bright and early at 9am on Sunday. A majority of the girls still a bit bleary eyed emerged from parents cars to get warmed up on a very heavy pitch.

Lewes kicked off and Crowborough immediately secured the ball and ran it back at Lewes blowing all of the early morning cobwebs away in the process. The first passage of play was a back and forth between the teams until Lewes broke through for an early score. 5-0.

The kick was quite a way out on the five metre line and as a result no conversion but a good effort from Lewes kicker. The Crowborough girls huddled under the posts and Captain Erin McArdle geed them ups to refocus and go again.

Crowborough to kick off with Eva Murray taking centre stage today at no 10. Eva, having never played fly half before (to the reporters knowledge) had an absolute blinder of a game and controlled the backline brilliantly. Kick off was regathered by Crowborough with some excellent battling and wrestling on the ground by Natasha Beesley and some sterling rucking by Lara Frank which allowed Hailey Gorringe to pick an go from the ruck and pop a lovely pass to Cerys Martin.
Lara involved again in securing the ball with a pop pass to Erin and the Crow Girls were in the opposition 22 in the blink of an eye. Great phase play from all involved.

Lewes conducted a beautiful line out and were back in possession for mere seconds as the expert pressure that Crows put on the Lewes defence forced the knock on which resulted a Borough scrum deep in Lewes back yard. These scrums were uncontested which always makes the process a bit odd but ever reliable Emily Whittaker made sure she hit Eva with a solid pass to get the ball away from traffic and the back played a lovely miss pass directly to Emily Baker and we were again, marching our way, nay, charging past that gain line as if it wasn’t there.

Excellent forward play from both teams followed in a period that from their day forth will be dubbed “The School of Ruck” as what we bared witness to, was outstanding support play and great ball retention from both teams. Particular text book technique shown both both our newest additions to the team who, and it's tricky to remember this watching them, have only played 240 minutes of actual competitive rugby!! Katie Jupp picked up the ball and ran, gazelle like, directly at the lewes defence with zero fear exuding the confidence on someone shouting come on then, tackle me if you think you’re hard enough! The ball presentation was sublime and the support from fellow forward Pia Hucker was bang on as she sealed over the ball with perfect form for Whittaker to again unleash our rapid backs.

Another scrum and another 30 metres gained from the rampant red and whited hooped ladies. A few well executed phases with forwards smashing and securing the ball, backs executing offloads right at the perfect moment and Eva Murray with a lovely delayed show-and-go and then dummy pass tying the defence in knots to see her go over for a well deserved Crowborough try. 5 - 5.

Quick change in personnel due to a slight injury to Emily Whittaker saw Eva drop into scrum half temporarily. Lewes attack was in accedence at this point but the resolute Crowborough girls defending superbly to soak up the pressure for a few minutes. Maja, who had been on the pitch barley a minute was straight over the Lewes ruck to jackal the ball which saw a combo of Pia, Cerys and Katie get the ball clear enough for Eva to execute a lovely clearance kick.

First Borough line out of the game saw Chloe Shortland replace Lara in the forwards and she was immediately involved as we saw a blonde flash emerge from a melee to run the ball out of the 22 only to be bought to ground by some great Lewes tackling. Another blast of Under Pressure was playing in the imagination as the opposition came knocking once more.
Crowborough help resolute and patience was a virtue. More strong shoulders from all of the Crowborough defence led to a turnover opportunity for Cerys as the diminutive centre passed to Natasha who in turn released the speed machine Emily Baker who ate up the metres from her own 5 metre line to nigh the the opposition 22 showing the Lewes girls a muddy pair of heels. Milliseconds to her being caught she released Maja who stuck on her shoulder all the way to carry on the attack up to the 5 metre line were she popped the ball up to Captain McArdle running another fantastic support line and was able to dot down what was a fabulous team try.

A few more all on roll off subs and we were back at it. Lewes continued to look good in their forward phases and tested Crowborough. This test was one that we couldn’t manage to pass however and Lewes managed to get another try to level the score at 10 a piece.

Undeterred the red and white attack was back on with a great turnover by the forwards and Chloe going on another line break to make nearly 30 metres from the half way line only to be stopped by a great last ditch tackle. So close to an instant response from Shortland but alas, no score this time.

Half time 10 - 10.

Lewes immediately rocketed into action with an early try caught the defence unawares to keep their side of the scoreboard ticking. This try was against the run of play compared to the last period of the first half. 15 - 10. Its always disappointing to concede early on in a half but these strong young women shrugged it off like it was nothing an undeterred like Henry V’s rally cry they went once more unto the breach, dear friends.

More great forward work saw Crowborough rewarded with a penalty as Lewes didn’t want to give up the ball to the fierce jackalling of Keira. Quick tap by Erin saw a lung busting run from half way to the opposition 5 metre with superb fends and great footwork by the captain. The coaching team seemed particularly happy with this as its been reported that the girls have been working on this aspect over the past month or so in training and when Andy Martin was spoken to after the match he was heard to say he was chuffed to bits to see these extra tools being used by the girls in games. Erins run resulted in a slightly odd turn over where the Lewes girls tried to clear their lines but they dropped the ball backwards and it sat in the goal area like an expectant pause, waiting, wondering, what will happen to me now…..but thanks to Maja’a quick thinking she pounced like a coiled tiger at it’s prey to give us another level score at 15 - 15.
This was the closet conversation attempt of the day with Murray hitting the crossbar agonisingly close to adding 2 points to the score.

Crowborough returned the kick off with an amazing flurry of passes starting with McArdle to Martin, Martin to O’Donnell and then a looped run from Martin to receive the pass back from O’Donnell. Martin then went for a leg stretch and covered some serious ground bouncing two tackles before being tackled into touch on the Lewes 22. This was accompanied by much excited screaming from a sidelined Beesley.

The resulting line out saw Hailey gather the loose ball and set up a ruck in the red zone. More outstanding breakdown work by the Borough forwards saw Lara attempt a pick and go but was stopped after a couple of metres but the red and whites hoops swarmed over the ball like a pack of angry bees (I do know the collective noun for bees isn’t pack but what you gonna do…) which set up a forward pod move for Hailey to punch a hole in the defence to score the forth try of the day. Crowborugh up 15 - 20.

Lewes to kick off back to Crowborough and more pressure forced Lewes into a clearing kick only to see Lara gather the awkward bouncing egg and run straight back at the tired and beleaguered Lewes defence. The ball was tuned over but not due to the lack of trying as the Crowborough rucks were strong all day and were much improved from the last game. Another thing that the coaching team were particular pleased to see as again, this has been part of the game which has had a lot of focus recently. So Andy told me….

Lewes did finally break the defence again with a loopy lateral move which saw them get around Crowborough’s defenders and score just under the post. Still no conversions meant the score stayed level at 20 - 20.

The screw was turned by the Crows now and they camped themselves in Lewes 22 for a chunk of the remaining time. Great hands from the backs and a couple of metre eating runs by both McArdle and Jupp meant we were close again but with some stiff competition in the breakdown were turned over. This didn’t deter the girls from making it hard for Lewes to exit though as with a couple of not quite text book “swing around and dump them on the ground” tackles from Cerys, Eva then tackled Lewes into touch for a Crows line out.
Lewes regained possession but again, Crowborough put the attack under a lot of pressure with an absolute thumper of a tackle by Lara which saw the ball split backwards as Lewes were in full retreat only to have a brief reprieve with a penalty which led to Crowborough turning over the ball in the following couple of phases.

We were then witness to an absolute lesson in timely handoffs as the ball pinged between players at pace and all the while moving forwards with Lara making a break and handing the ball to Erin who made a few more metres with Keira in close quarter support and then Katie making the final 20 metres or so with some excellent direct attacking of space.

Lewes with their hands on the ball but with back against the wall opted to clear their lines only for Chloe to brilliantly secure the slippery ball and then ANOTHER masterclass in support runs and late passes bamboozled the defenders for Crowborough to go close again.

Late Lewes pressure saw some more big hits needing to be put in and both Erin and Cerys could be relied upon to keep the Lewes attack at bay. Whilst an injury was being seen to, there was conversation in the Crow ranks weighing up the decisions of do we kick it out of play and settle for the draw or do we go for it and risk losing. It was reported from an anonymous source that coaching team handed that decision to the team but offered the advice of - death or glory.

They bravely went for it. Emily Whittaker ran the ball from the base of the scrum to set up a few phases. Crowborough were slowly making ground with a solid ball retention structure about them.
And then, all of a sudden we saw another break and Chloe Shortland burst free again, offloaded to Erin who strode out with glory in her eyes only to be bought to halt by two Lewes defenders having to use the touchline as a third which heralded the final whistle.

All in all a great game to watch ending in a fair 20 - 20 result. This is the closest game between Lewes and Crowborough in recent years which highlights the improvements that these girls have made over the past few seasons. From brand new players to seasoned veterans, each member of the team has made incremental improvements and then had to put it together on the pitch.
That is one of things that the coaching team were hugely impressed with was the girls ability to take what they have done in training and use it in the games. The coaches can’t do it for them. They have to do it themselves and they should all be rightly proud of themselves after that display as they were all, in the true meaning of the word, awesome.
If that had been a full 15 a side game then this reporter has no doubt that it would have ended in a Crowborough win.
The team work on show was an absolute marvel today. Not only on the pitch, but those girls who were rolled on and off as subs were taking part by shouting words of encouragement at their team mates from the sidelines was music to the coaching teams ears.

As always the travelling support for the team was in great voice and always means the world to those on the pitch so to all parents who braved the early morning and the low temperatures, it is always appreciated.

And to sum up dear reader, I’ll leave you with the sage words of Faye Shortland left ringing in the ears of the coaches as they left “You just have to look at the smiles on their faces to see what it means to them”

I mean, what more is there to say….Until next time my friends.

Go Crows