Beccles/Norwich U15s v Diss Rfc Vixens U15s

Match Report
5/1/20
Beccles/Norwich U15s v Diss Rfc Vixens U15s

Off we go again, after the Christmas break, with a game against a Beccles/Norwich combo, playing 11 a side but only on half a pitch as the other half was even muddier than the one we played on. You dared not stand still for too long for fear of sinking in .
These were probably not the best conditions for our 2 new girls, Caitlin and Libby to make their debuts, but they played really well, putting in some strong runs and making big tackles.
The girls seemed to be a bit rusty after the long break, when our old friend Rosie scooped up the ball and made a blindside break to make it 0 - 5. We responded quickly when Bee broke from a scrum to equalise., Generally the play looked good with girls making strong direct runs and then offloading. There were some handling errors on both sides, which is not surprising given the conditions - heavy ground, slippy ball and cold fingers. Beccles made a good blindside break before Bee covered across to knock them into touch. Megan scored next, and then Savanah after another powerful surge, before a couple of missed tackles let Beccles in to make it 15 - 10.
The intensity levels improved, with there being a pattern of strong straight runs, with good offloading in the tackle to keep the momentum going, but with a similar pattern of girls being slow into the rucks, and bunching in the middle (maybe they were cold and needed the body warmth), and had Beccles been a bit smarter they could have made more progress round the wings. However the strong running was working and Phoebe who runs as straight and hard as anyone scored next, before Erin and Bee fed Megan who made it 25 - 10. Then Caitlin and LIbby made ground, feeding Savanah who gave Bells the scoring pass. 30 - 10 at half time.
The same patterns continued. Savanah scored after a good passing move. The scrum was becoming more and more dominant, pushing Beccles off the ball. This gave Ellie the opportunity to feed Bee who scampered over. to make it 40 - 10. We started to get the ball out to the wings and Libby was able to get the ball to Mia, 45 - 10. Beccles have some good players who could also run strongly, and the tackling had to be resolute to hold them out. One such surge allowed Beccles to score, but then back to the pattern of run, recycle, run and pass, releasing Bee, but then we got sucked into the breakdown enabling Beccles to nip down the narrow side to make it 50 - 20.
It was a bit strange at times; we were getting sucked in, but still not really committing to the rucks and mauls. This allowed Beccles more possession, and it took good tackling to keep them at bay. One missed tackle let them in to make it 50 -25. However good support from Libby and Megan released Bells who popped over. At a scrum Beccles called a kick ahead. Bee was alerted and dropped back. The kick went straight to her, she combined with Ellie and Bells to feed Morgan who sprinted over with the last move of the match to make it 60 - 25 final score.
So - a good win in tough conditions. Some areas to be looked at - eg, ignoring team mates outside in space, speed of entry to rucks, and lack of cohesion in rucking past the ball, getting drawn towards the ball, and not keeping our shape across the field. However there were lots of good things, powerful straight running by Phoebe, Savanah, Erin, Bee, and Bells in the centre of the field, mazy runs from Megan, Mia, Libby and Caitlin who were generally out wide, and good support play from Morgan and Ellie holding things together. Ellie's distribution at scrum half is coming on well and Morgan did well at prop with the Vixens dominating the set scrums. There were some huge hits by most of the girls keeping out some very strong Beccles runners.
Well done to Libby and Caitlin first time out. They fitted in really well, tackled hard and ran strongly when given the opportunity. Indeed Leon decided that Caitlin should be awarded Player of the Match for her contributions.

David Miller