OLs at wet National 7s

Written by Hannah Leyland

Thursday, 31 May 2007

Rain, rain, wind & more rain didn’t stop the Old Leamingtonian Ladies from competing in the England RFUW National 7’s tournament the last bank holiday weekend in May. Kicking off the tournament for OL’s against Waterloo, new captain Danni Benge lead the team in some awesome defensive work. The line was held for at least 5 minutes of the first half before the Prem 2 team penetrated & scored. In the 2nd half they ran in two more tries but OL’s kept their heads high & were pleased with the standard of the defence they had maintained. Despite persistent weather conditions spirits remained high. In the next match an hour later against Prem 1 team Henley, OL’s maintained a strong defence & remained alert to the overlap Henley attempted to create. Karen Coleman stopping them running down the outside several times with some big tackles. Henley took advantage of the downhill in the second half & scored 3 tries to take the win. After the group stages OL’s went into the 3rd of 4 cup groups – the Bowl. The team had settled into the atrocious conditions ready to meet Buckinghamshire Swans In the quarter final. Charlotte Hewer moved into the pack & put in some hard tackles. Hewer won the ball during the 3rd minute & burst up the touchline, offloading in the tackle to supporting runner Hannah Leyland who gave a final offload to May Sly who ran the last 22 & scored OL’s their first try of the tournament. The 2nd & 3rd tries came from Celina Bennett & Sly again who both scored from sprinting almost the length of the pitch & dashed OL’s hopes of getting warmed up in the showers! Hewer then went off with an injured leg & Ada Ajoku came on. OL’s hammered away at the Swans defence in the second half & Lichfield ‘on-loan’ player Katie Crowley ran the 4th try home with a 5th & final one coming in the last 30seconds from Leyland. Benge scored 2 conversions in this game. The semi-final match almost started with 4 players! Facing Cheltenham, OL’s had to drag players away from the pig roast & radiators with a little help from a kind lady on a megaphone! This game turned out to be OL’s last. Despite more good defensive work from a cold Pip Colenutt & some tactical kicking from Benge, OL’s were no match for Cheltenham. Some good line out jumping from Benge & hard running attacks from Celina Bennett turned out to be to no avail as the opposition ran in 3 tries & finished the day off. The day was great fun even if the weather wasn’t & the team partied away in their wellies, well into the night whilst the wind & rain hammered the tents!

 

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