Formed 2004 ... Herts 7s U14 Runners-up 2005 ... North Herts U14 team, Herts Youth Games 2005 runners-up (coached by Letchworth)... Herts Superteams U14 Runners-up 2005 ... Herts SuperTeams "Fairplay" winners 2006 ... Rochford 10s U17 Champions 2006 ... East Midlands 10s U17 Runners-up 2007 ... East Midlands 10s U17 "Fairplay" winners 2007 ... National 10s U17 5th place and "Fairplay" winners 2007 ... Herts 7s U17 Plate runners-up 2007 ... National 7s U17 Plate winners 2007 ... RFU "President's XV" Award winners 2007 ... Herts Superteams winners 2007 ... Midlands 10s U18 Runners-up 2008 ... National 10s U18 4th place 2008 ... North Herts U11 team, Herts Youth Games 2008 runners-up (coached by Letchworth girls) ... London and SE 7s U18 Plate runners-up 2008 ... Herts 7s U18s runners-up 2008 ... National 7s U18s quarter-finalists 2008 ... Gloucester City 10s U18 Bowl runner-up (6th) 2009 ... Worthing 10s U18 Plate runner-up 2009 ... National 7s U18 Plate winners 2009... Worthing 10s U15 Plate winners 2010... Worthing 10s U18 Shield winners 2010... Herts 7s U15 and U18 Bowl runners-up 2010... National 7s U18 Plate runners-up 2010...

Sunday, November 25, 2007

A long, tough afternoon

An unpleasent injury to one of the Basford players brought a slightly premature end to an otherwise competitive afternoon's rugby. Obviously we will keep an eye on the Basford blog to see how things go, but based on Sasha's account it sounded like a serious leg injury.

Up until then the day had gone quite well. Our patched together team had, with the aid of a few borrowed players, performed well - starting better and maintaining a far more consistent performance than in some recent games. Unfortunately we didn't get through the afternoon without adding to the injury list, Jess's shoulder problem reviving itself in the first game against Basford but no before Jess had put in some good runs that had threatened to cut through Basford's defence. Jess went to hospital where the injury was diagnosed as a chipped collar bone - so that is Jess also now out for at least the next two weeks.

Admittedly Basford were already a couple of tries up by this stage, but the loss of Jess's speed in the centre hardly helped our cause. Explosive speed would seem to be the best weapon against Basford, and Sasha and Natalie both came close (particularly in the second half), so if Jess (and maybe Hayley) had been on the field then maybe we might have crossed Basford's line for the first time this season... but in the end I think most people were happy with a performance that held a far stronger opposition to only five tries.

Next up was Paviors, a very different side who have always run us ragged in the past. This proved to be a very close and exciting game, 0-0 at half-time, with the deadlock only broken mid-way through the second half by Paviors, who only doubled the margin from the final move of the game. It was disappointing perhaps not to record a score on the afternoon, but in practice this would have been a pretty tough afternoon with a full strength team. Basford finished off the afternoon with a victory by a single try over Paviors, the injury bringing things to an early close.

So... a final county day next weekend, with training at Letchworth for everyone else, and it would obviously be a big help for the rest of our season if we could return from a county day with as many players as we send!

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:45 PM

    Wouldn't it be nice Mr Birch if you didn't always refer to the 'if's' and 'might haves' and stick to how well the girls on the field (all 10 or so of them) who carried on battling til the end. This team needs to look to the now and present playing of each match to achieve success together.

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  2. Literary criticism is always interesting. It is endlessly fascinating to see how ones words can be interpreted in new, interesting, and unexpected ways.

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  3. Anonymous6:09 PM

    Geek

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  4. Anonymous8:06 PM

    hehe good one mr anonymous

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  5. Anonymous9:48 PM

    oh dear god !

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  6. Anonymous9:31 AM

    i feel that the previous anonymous comments are 'spot on' and not about 'literary criticsm' but about supporting the girls who week in week out give their consistant best, with rarely mention on the blogg. On sunday our pack held the Basford pack for nearly every scrum of the match, what about giving them a mention instead on concertating on who was NOT on the pitch? The front row in particular came in for some very heavy work and it is rare that we see either Charlie, Rosie or Carla's name on here! so well done the pack your work is appreceiated. Also Natalie's persistance was amazing and the rest of the girls who undoubtly do miss Halyey's strengths when she is not on the pitch (and how good it was to have her there supportng them too) work so hard consitantly.Thank you girls

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  7. Anonymous11:26 AM

    hehe, poor john!

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  8. John Birch said...
    Sorry if you have taken my reply to Mr/Ms Anonymous or the above as in any way critical of the team, but the problem I have is that every time we place a certain Unique Club they tend to Uniquely take Unique objection to anything that I (or come to that anyone else who contributes for the blog) ever writes, Uniquely reading the most remarkable things into the most innocuous remarks. Even when I have praised them in the past I have found that they somehow read it as being an insult!

    This Uniquely annoys me (actually I could use words other than "annoy" here, so replace this word with anything you see as appropriate) so when another Anon made a contribution my reaction was roughly along the lines of "here we go again".

    Anyway, to get to the substantive complaint you may have, sorry if you think that the report was incorrect but I think if you check you will see lines such as how the team "performed well", "starting better and maintaining a far more consistent performance than in some recent games". That seems pretty postive to me...

    But if anyone else wants to write match reports I have no problem - I will give any team member the same write access that Katie, Mike, Joe, and Simon have. You just have to ask. Its your blog as much as its your team.

    As for the Mr Bojangle... printable words fail me...

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  9. Anonymous9:35 AM

    I dont see the problem with the match report ; it seems fair and balanced, with no bias to certain players more than others. And remember - it's important to reflect on positives, but at the same time dressing up under-performance will do you no favours in the long run!

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