Year 7/8 girls beach rugby success
Today myself and Miss Gay took the year 7 and 8 girls rugby team (along with a team from Sirius West) to a beach rugby tournament in Bridlington. After this event was cancelled last year due to poor weather, the girls were looking forward to finally playing at the seaside.
Organised by the RFU, the competition was designed for participation reasons and therefore, no league/competition format was put in place. The girls played 5 games of touch rugby, 6 minutes each game.
Game 1: SAN 2-1 Wolfreton School
The first game saw our girls come up against some East Riding opposition. Whilst the game was only touch, the girls had to offload the ball quicker to create more try scoring opportunities. Lucy Hayley did just that, offloading quickly to Ella Mallinson who skipped passed the Wolfreton player and put the ball down for the first try. Wolfreton equalised quickly, however a follow up try from Mikki Campbell gave us the first win of the day.
Game 2: SAN 0-0 York High
Next up was another unknown opposition in the form of York High. It was evident that both teams had worked out how to defend effectively for the ball to be quickly turned over after six touches. As a result this game finished in a 0-0 draw, a fair result.
Game 3: SAN 2- Cottingham High
Another unfamiliar opponent from the East Riding, SAN lined up against a very tall Cottingham High. Ella Mallinson had got into her stride by this point, working well with Lucy Hayley and Mikki Campbell to go over the line twice in quick succession. However a forward pass on our part and good link up play by Cott saw them respond with two tries of their own, the game finishing 2-2.
Game 4: SAN 3-0 Malton School
We then played another brand new team. This was arguably the girls’ best performance of the day. Great support play from Gabija allowed both Mikki and Ella to score tries. Gabby then followed this up with a try of her own, timing her run superbly to run onto the pass of Lucy Hayley to escape the touch of the Malton player, making it 3-0 to SAN. A dominant performance.
Game 5: SAN 1-0 St Mary’s
Our last game finally saw us come up against familiar opposition. St Mary’s had been strong throughout the day and this would prove a good test for the girls. Both teams were evidently getting tired and mistakes were starting to be made. But with the last five seconds of the game the ball was switched out to Ella Mallinson in lots of space who scored her fifth try of the day and sealed a fantastic win against a good opposition.
The girls played brilliantly, unbeaten all day with 3 wins and 2 draws! If you see any of them around the academy, please congratulate them for their efforts:
Lucy Hayley
Ella Mallinson
Mikki Campbell
Naomi Harrison
Maja Komperda
Gabijia Giedryte
Rejoice Ukegbu
Zoe Otaru
**Highlight of the day: Rejoice falling head first into the sea!**
