Royal Holloway Away (29-17 win)

With the new stash and sponsors on board the team looked ready for anything after a long trip to Egham for the game. It's just a shame then that we didn't seem like we were and spent the first half of the match warming up! No one is quite sure why or how but we just weren't 'there' for the first 40  minutes, missing tackles and losing at the breakdown - something we're always strongest at. I'll give Holloway their dues though, there were strong at the rucks and turning over balls, but if we were at our best I doubt that would have happened. Despite all this it was Harriet that was first to put points on the board with a try, unfortunately this momentum wasn't built upon. Holloway came back at us, fairly determined, and scored their own try which was easily converted. We were losing, 7-5, this then got fairly quickly extended to a 12-5 lead for Holloway and a royal bollocking by our coaches to the girls. Half time and we were on the back foot, everyone knew what was going wrong and it was time to prove ourselves by rectifying it. 

It seemed to have sunk in a little that everyone needed to up their game and a well executed backs move gave rise to our second try scored by Anna which Alice was then able to convert 12-12. Suddenly we were a completely different team in the second half. Our skill showed, our fitness showed and we proved our determination. Joelle was next to score, allowing Alice to convert (with a scary moment as it bounced over the bar!) and the Sara E was next to put 5 points up for us. That conversion was a lot trickier so no hard feelings for Alice there, especially as she was then next to score a try of her own. 29-12 and we were looking a lot better as a team. One brief lapse of concentration near the end meant Holloway were able to bring the final score to 29-17. It was hard fought, it was messy, but it was a win at the end of the day. The team will have learnt a lot from this, and I'm proud to say that we came back in the second half to pull it out of the bag. Well done ladies, but don't expect Nat or Martin to take it easy on you all at training tonight...

Notable Mentions:
Try Scorers - Harriet Orrell (C), Sara Eskola (1), Anna MacDonald (1), Joelle Nadeau (1), 
Alice Smith (1 + 2 conversions)
Forward of the match - Bethan Phillips
Back of the match - (Joint) Anna MacDonald and Hannah Branford