Glorious Gloucester!

The Gloucester City 10s tournament took place over the weekend of 18/19 April at Hartpury college with the U18s competition on the Saturday and the U15s playing on the Sunday.

In the U18s competition, Letchworth were depleted to only 10 players due to various work commitments, etc. and were fortunate to be joined for the day by Emily Kingston as this gave the potential to rest one player at a time during the tournament (or, at least, that's what we had hoped!). The competition involved 10 teams split into 2 groups and Letchworth found themselves in the same group as old adversaries Worcester and Suffolk Sabres as well as two teams we had not played before - NewCull (Newquay & Collumpton) and Berry Hill.

The first game - against Suffolk Sabres - was a close fought battle which was eventually won by Sabres 14-0. This was followed by a more one sided match against Worcester who romped away to a convincing 27-0 victory. During this game, Georgie took a nasty bang to the head and was duly taken off to the local hospital to be checked out - so much for having a player to spare! I'm glad to report that Georgie was able to rejoin the team in time to see their final match in the tournament.

With only 10 players, Letchworth next played NewCull who were even worse off as they only had 7! The game was therefore played as a 7-a-side contest and was again a very even match with Letchworth running out winners by 12-7 thanks to a couple of excellent tries by Natalie and Bubbles and fantastic chasing back by Natalie who just caught the NewCull player short of the line and prevented them snatching the game away from Letchworth in the final minute. The last group game against Berry Hill saw the Letchworth girls take command and win by the comfortable margin of 22-0 with tries by Nikki, Emily and Jess (2).

At the conclusion of the group stage, Letchworth were in 3rd place and qualified for the 'Tornado Shield' final against Exeter Saracens but before that game there was time to take a team photo - unfortunately without Georgie who had not yet got back to Hartpury -

and to take part in the RAF Team Challenge in the gym. This was a timed series of tests with the emphasis on problem solving, teamwork and communication -

- all the challenges were completed but a high number of fouls (particularly on the 5 person balance) saw Letchworth end up in 7th place.

And so to the Tornado Shield final against the reigning RFUW National 7s champions, Exeter Saracens. It was an exciting game dominated by break away tries with Exeter gaining an early lead and building on that base throughout the rest of the game to finish with a commanding lead. The highlight from a Letchworth perspective was a great interception by Jess who then ran the length of the field to score under the posts and put herself to the top of the Letchworth try scorers this season.

This was a very hard days rugby and the Letchworth girls were excellent throughout the day with everyone doing their utmost right up to the final whistle. Runners-up in the Tornado Shield (6th place overall) was a fine achievement in what I feel was the highest standard competition I have seen in girls club rugby.

Not only was the standard of rugby very high, the whole tournament was very well run and very sportingly competed. Many, many thanks to Gloucester Girls Rugby Charitable Trust Fund for a fantastically well organised event.

And finally, a special 'Thank you' to Emily who played brilliantly for Letchworth throughout the day.

Group Results :

Suffolk Sabres 14 - 0 Letchworth

Worcester 27 - 0 Letchworth

NewCull 7 - 12 Letchworth

Berry Hill 0 - 22 Letchworth

Tornado Shield final :

Exeter Saracens 31 - 5 Letchworth

Letchworth scorers :

Tries : Jess (3), Natalie, Bubbles, Nikki, Emily

Conversions : Carla, Nikki

A report on the U15s competition will be posted shortly.