The season ends at last...

Nim kicks the final restart of a long season.... >>>
Two semi-finals in three weeks - and maybe next season we can go one step further.

This weekend saw us get out first win in the National Sevens, and a deserved one it was too. Moreover against more or less the same team that thrashed us at U14 level last time.

When we started throwing the ball about against Basildon suddenly they looked an average team as well and - but for the referee getting in the way of Nichola's pass to an unmarked Mel - might have resulted in a narrower scoreline.

And as for Wimborne... shows what a well drilled and experienced backline can do in a tournament like this. At 15-a-side I think we'd be closer.

Our strength has been in our forwards this season. Since Robyn joined and gave us a settled front row no side has remotely troubled us when we've had our full pack out, which is not bad considering the average age of everyone in the team (ie rather closer to 15 than 17). In contrast we have struggled a bit in the backs in comparison, often not having enough girls to fill all positions.

The exciting thing for next season is that the U14s coming up slot so well into the missing places in the current U17 squad. With around 20 U17s we'll even have - in theory - team selection problems, though in practice what it does mean is that we can expect to have 13-15 players for pretty much every game, and can therefore confidently enter things like the National Knock-out cup (which we've had to miss out on up until now because we couldn't rely on having a big enough squad on the day).

So - new challenges to look forward to, as well as some familar rivals to turn over. And only three months before we begin (probably on the last Wednesday in August - watch this space!).

Have a good summer.