Game Report: June 12, 2010

Senior Women's Second Team
Aurora Barbarians RFC (ABRFC) 85 - London 10

The 2nd XV started the match looking to put the heavy loss from their previous game with Highland behind them. It took only two minutes for Tamara to step off her left foot, cut inside the drifting defence and then run in from about 40 yards to open the account for Aurora. After the kick-off, Aurora maintained their pressure playing for sustained periods in the opposition half and ran a series of forward dominated drives eventually resulting in Vern crashing over from short range 10 minutes into the game. Six minutes later Vern again crossed the line and Aurora were now certainly becoming more dominant. Mack Fane & Jacey added a couple of tries four minutes apart and we had secured our bonus point try.

At fly half, Meg Puttock's control of the backline was becoming more evident. Surely the prettiest try of the match came next with a beautiful series of passing and offloading involving Meg P. Vern, Jacey and Mack in the centre of the field before the ball moved left and out wide to Monique who stepped off the left foot and showed some lovely running skills to touch down for our sixth try at the 30 minute mark. There were three more tries in the first frame from Mack, Tamara and Annie and Aurora closed out the second half with 9 tries, 5 of which had been converted by Annie giving us a 55-0 margin.

Aurora began the second half with the same determination as they closed out the first. It took only four minutes for Meg P to open the defence again, this time for herself as she sliced through a gap and ghosted in from the 22. A series of mental errors and weak discipline allowed London to move down the field for the first score of the match. The Barbs quickly rebounded with tries from Nikki and Vern. Again some mental lapses allowed London to score their second, and last, try. The heat and humidity began to take its toll and the pace of the game slowed somewhat but not before both Nats ("Lettuce" and newly engaged Bendavid) rounded out the day's events with a try each. The girls had rebounded well from the previous week, and had made an 88-10 point statement. Tamara was awarded Man of the Match, but also to be acknowledged were two very strong performances from Rhonda and Meg P. They were the 9-10 link and they controlled the game superbly, especially Meg who is still very new to this role. Well done to all.