North Hykeham Under 15 Girls Rugby Squad Triumph in the National 7-a-side Competition
A fortnight after seven North Hykeham players helped East Midlands win the National Regions Title at Lichfield they were back in action as their club side competed in the National Under 15 7 a side tournament at Leighton Buzzard R.F.C. on Saturday afternoon.
The short sided version of the game is ideally suited to the North Hykeham playing style of pass before contact and making the use of the pace of the likes Rachel Jones, Laura Ware and Tanya Bird in the wide open spaces that the game creates.
The tournament was split into four pools with four teams in each. The winners and runners up of each pool progressed to the quater finals for the knock stages of the competition.
The pool games saw North Hykeham pitted against Waterloo, Reading and Aylestone St James. The team won all three games comfortably scoring 99 points in the process beating Aylestone 43 - 0 , Reading 32 - 0 and Waterloo 24 - 0. Importantly the points were being scored across the whole team with Hannah Newsome, Laura Ware, Rachel Jones, Tanya Bird, Katie Hopkinson , Paula Smith and Carla Clubb all scoring tries.
The quarter finals saw them play Basford and against they ran out winners with out conceeding a point 26 - 0 with tries from Carla, Laura and a brace from Rachel who also made good two drop kick conversions.
The semi fianl was against London Irish and in a tight game North Hykeham came through by the narrow margin of 12 points to 10, Laura scoring both tries and Rachel drop kicking a conversion.
The final against Exeter Saracens showed the spirit of the North Hykeham girls as playing into the wind and up the slope they conceeded two first half tries to allow the opposition to take a 10 point lead into the break. This was the first time in the competition they they had found themselves behind in a game. However due to good chasing back the Exeter tries were scored in the corners making the conversions almost impossible.
The sceond half saw North Hykeham play with the wind and slope and tries from Carla and Rachel plus one drop kick gave them the National Title by 12 points to 10, showing just how important the chasing back in the first half eventually proved.
The North Hykeham squad were - Carla Clubb, Paula Smith, Katie Smith, Emma Orrey, Becky Lockwood, Jade O ' Shaughnessy, Tanya Bird, Laura Ware, Rachel Jones , Hannah Newsome, Katie Hopkinson and Emily Monds with Melissa Kelly as a non playing travelling reserve.
The club " End Of Season Dinner " at the Bentley Hotel on the 30th May will be a most enjoyable evening for the girls who can been proud of what they have achieved. This has been an excellent season for them. As well as helping to win the regional title and winning the National 7's they were also awarded North Hykeham Town Council Mayors " Community Awared " for 2008. Of 13 club games played the team won 11 losing just two games and in the process has a points difference of 380 to 161.
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