The Herts girls scored fifteen unanswered tries, along with six conversions.
With the match so early in the season, it was largely seen as a friendly warm-up for the London
and South East county tournament in December. Regrettably Essex were unable to field a full team
and so Herts loaned them a couple of their players, with the match set up as four quarters with
regular change-overs. While this allowed the coaches to try out a series of different combinations,
particularly in the forwards pack, it also made for a somewhat disjointed match with no real pattern
emerging other than Herts domination in both the forwards and backs.
Try scorers were Sydney Gregson with six tries, Marie Beaufils with three tries, Harriet Austin with
two tries, Corinne McDonough with two tries, and Bryony Pomfret and Elizabeth Crake each with
one try. Abbie Maxwell added five conversions with Stevie Farrow contributing one. Though tries
were fairly regular throughout, the opening five minute period in the second quarter proved telling
as Sydney ran in three tries, running some fine lines picking up the ball at speed from the centres to
find big holes in the Essex defence.
It’s fair to say that Essex weren’t able to provide the strength of opposition to really test the Herts
girls and a sterner test can be expected in the next match against Kent – always a tough fixture.
Herts team: Harriet Austin, Marie Beaufils, Catrin Bowser, Katy Cook, Elizabeth Crake, Hayley
Everett, Stevie Farrow, Melissa Gargaro, Sydney Gregson, Ellie Hurer, Chloe James, Emilie James,
Florence Jones, Hannah Jones, Abbie Maxwell, Corinne McDonough, Pat Metcalfe-Jones, Bryony
Pomfret, Megan Smith, Olivia Stembridge, Katy Walker
Other results:
U18s:
Cheshire 17 Yorkshire 12
Cumbria/Durham 5 Northumberland 7
Cumbria/Durham 0 Lancashire 10
Lancashire 7 Northumberland 12
Staffordshire 43 EastMidlands 7
North Mids 38 NLD 5
North Mids 50 Leicestershire 0
Leicestershire 0 NLD 21
Essex 0 Hertfordshire 87
Middlesex 15 Eastern Counties 32
Kent 7 Surrey 12
Hampshire 24 Sussex 5
Cornwall 0 Devon 51
Gloucestershire 36 Dorset & Wilts 17
Oxfordshire 24 Somerset 5
Oxfordshire 5 Berkshire 27
Berkshire 26 Somerset 0
U15s:
Cheshire 10 EastMidlands 17
Cumbria/Durham 19 Northumberland 5
Cumbria/Durham 5 Lancashire 29
Lancashire 38 Northumberland 7
North Mids 12 NLD 22
North Mids 10 Leicestershire 5
Leicestershire 34 NLD 5
Essex 10 Hertfordshire 86
Middlesex 34 Eastern Counties 5
Kent 40 Surrey 0
Hampshire 20 Sussex 25
Cornwall 14 Devon 46
Gloucestershire 17 Dorset & Wilts 15
Oxfordshire 12 Somerset 5
Oxfordshire 0 Berkshire 17
Berkshire 20 Somerset 0
