It was a beautiful crisp sunny day when the Streatham-Croydon Ladies Development Team traveled to Brockleians RFC as part of our ongoing drive to grow our budding second team. It being the end of the season numbers were low but in the spirit of the game Brockleians loaned us a couple of players to furnish a 12 vs 12 run out.

SCRFC had a mix of new players and old timers including an entire back line of forwards save for our 9 and 10, which led to some interesting positional play at the breakdowns. We got off to a ropey start with a knock on from the kick off by yours truly followed by poor organisation in defence. This was capitalised by a quick-thinking Brockleians who crashed through the middle and scored an early try.

After a brief re-group SCRFC came out firing at the re-start. No 8-come-centre Mel Laidlaw-Anderson took on kicking duties and put Brockleians far into their own half, followed by a disciplined chase and well-organised defensive play at the rucks resulting in a turn-over. Returning scrum half Catherine 'CK' Kingston controlled the pace and linked up with centre-come-fly half Phili May who streaked through a tasty gap to put SCRFC's first try under the posts.

Brockleians kick off was well gathered by second row Katherine ‘KC’ Cowling (returning from injury) who stormed through 4 defenders before being brought down, whilst experienced front row Sholeve Davies and Alix Bushnell put in some phenomenal hits leaving the Brockleians players scattered about the pitch. Great support play at the rucks by relative newbies Amy Davies and Emma Rastall ensured clean ball for CK to distribute. The backs were gaining confidence enabling a sneaky DSP to put Laidlaw-Anderson through a hole to put down her first try of the game.

An unfortunate knock-on by Brockleians at the re-start (it happens to the best of us) allowed our scrum to flex its muscles. With dominant hooking by Sholeve Davies plus an increasingly synchronised pack our scrum became a weapon winning our own plus a smattering of turnovers. Play was briefly interrupted by an enthusiastic canine spectator getting in the line and both sides enjoyed a rest whilst it was ushered off the pitch. The width of the pitch plus the diminished numbers opened up space for the backs to have some fun, with May adding another 10 points before the half time whistle.

New half, new tactics. With no subs, we moved to conserve energy by playing a more narrow pattern, plus Ceri Buck (2nd row-come-winger) was moved into the centres to get her more involved in the game. Buck proved a very useful centre with quick hands, linking up well with Flanker-come-outside centre Helena Solomon who made a huge number of line breaks. Brockleians also had a change of plan in that they started kicking over the top- a tactic that proved fruitful after an outnumbered Solomon gathered a loose kick, turned and was faced by 6 oncoming Brockleians players. Cue expletives and an unsuccessful ruck and Brockleians speedy fullback put over a well-worked try.

Towards the end of the game 9-10 pairing of CK and May hit their stride, controlling the pace and mixing up our attacking structure. Laidlaw-Anderson secured another 2 tries, as did May, with her final try coming during the last play of the game and expertly converted by Solomon to bring the full time score to 46-12

We would like to thank Brockleians for their exceptional hospitality and look forward to playing them again in the future.

Forward of the match: Emma Rastall
Back of the match: Catherine Kingston
Scorers: Phili May (5T), Mel Laidlaw-Anderson (3T, 2C), Helena Solomon (1C)

Next week the ladies have a week off, to return with a friendly vs Medway ladies at home on 7th April with an accompanying BBQ. Do come down for some beers and burgers!