Early news from 10s: heavy rain disrupts festival

Hopefully we'll get a more detailed report later, but early news via a mobile phone call indicates that the first ever National 10s finals was a great day out for the girls - until a downpour made the pitches, in the girls' opinions, unplayable. But play still continued.

After a win against Dorking (I suspect by about 5-0), the girls had narrowly lost to Welwyn 5-0 and Wimborne 15-0. It was during the ensuing lunch break that the heavens opened, apparently, but the officials insisted that the tournament continue.

"So we just messed about", say our informant, "you couldn't take it seriously" and one presumes they also didn't want to risk injuries. As a result they shipped a fair few tries in their final two games against Worcester and "someone else - I can't even remember who it was. Didn't seem to matter" [Paviors, presumably?].

A pity then that such a promising day should end with - reading between the lines here - what I detect to be "a degree of annoyance" shall we say. I suppose the cups have been purchased and medals engraved, "the show must go on" if at all possible, but for our girls - who normally relish muddy conditions - to not want to play means it must have been very wet indeed.

That aside its clear that the girls are proud of their performances preceeding the deluge. Let's hope that the competition is repeated next season - but maybe at a rather more sensible time of year?