The
Herts girls romped through the pool round without conceding a try. The first
match was a comprehensive 50-0 victory over Eastern Counties. Strong running by
forwards Ellena Perry and Harriet Austin, followed by a string of passes among
the backs, resulted in Katy Walker scoring the first try in the corner.
Sydney
Gregson completed a hatrick. Two of her tries were almost identical with strong
running through the middle complete with handoffs. Her third came as a result
of some good handling among the backs. Beth Summerfield scored two tries. Her
first involved a neat sidestep to score under the posts and her second came
from a run down the wing. Herts added a further try from their inside centre and
Zoe Harrison converted five of her eight attempts.
The
second match against Kent was, as expected, a tighter affair with Herts coming
out with a 12 – 0 win. Kent contained Herts for much of the match allowing the
Herts backs very little freedom with the ball. Herts’ first try came when prop
Vicci Cogger emerged with the ball from a maul and powered her way uphill 30m
to the tryline with players hanging off her. Sydney scored the second try under
the post which gave Zoe an easy conversion.
The
third pool game brought a 19 – 0 victory over Hampshire. The score line stood
at 0-0 for much of the game. Bringing on Vicci towards the middle of the second
half seemed to bring Herts to life and they scored three tries in quick
succession by Welwyn/Hartpury teamates Vicci and Sydney (who scored twice). Zoe
added two conversions.
The
final was against Surrey. Herts scored in the opening minutes when the ball was
moved neatly along the backs from a lineout resulting in a try for fullback Sydney.
This was her seventh of the day, making her Herts’ top try scorer. Herts’
second try followed a scrum 7 metres out when their inside centre powered
through the middle to score.
Herts
final try of the day came when Beth picked up a loose ball near the half way
line and outsprinted the Surrey defence down the wing to score in the corner.
With Zoe successfully converting two of her three attempts Herts were 19-0
ahead. Surrey then came back with a try of their own to take the scoreline to
19-5. With an injury to a Herts player requiring an ambulance the match was
stopped with a minute to go and Herts were divisional champions.
Head
coach John Harrison said, “All the coaches are proud of the way the girls
played today and they deserve to be champions. It was a fantastic team
performance. All the girls worked for each other and did everything they were
asked and more.”
Team:
Abigail Ativie, Harriet Austin, Sara Blissett, Vicci Cogger, Hayley, Everett, Sydney
Gregson, Zoe Harrison, Florence Jones, Aine McMahon, Pat Metcalfe-Jones, Jo
Palfrey, Ellena Perry, Bryony Pomfret, Helen Roberts, Megan Smith, Jeanine
Stephenson, Beth Summerfield, Aleah Townsend, Katy Walker(Photos: Jonathan Cirkel)
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