First game of the 10/11 season was an away game friendly against Marlow Ladies on Sunday, 19 September.
The score doesn’t reflect the quality of rugby played by Ealing, with great phase play, good passing along the backs, resulting in valuable yardage and line breaks and some solid forward play. There were many a hard fought battle to retain the ball in scrappy rucks but also to make some great steals from the opposition.
Ealing dominated possession and spent a majority of the game in the oppositions territory, however were unable to translate that into points on the board. White-line fever got the better of us, and time and time again we came so close, only to be robbed at the last.
Marlow, expoilting a few mistakes, broke through the defensive line, quickly scoring a couple of run-away tries in quick succession. Stacie Castiani put in a top effort chasing them down, and even prevented a couple to scoring attempts with speed and dedicated tackling.
Congratulations to Tara Fox, Anne-marie Rand, Rachel Snell, Sophia Carter who took the pitch for the first time wearing Ealing Green. Sophia, playing fullback, who made several stunning runs through the defensive line, with a incredibly low centre of gravity, making her difficult to tackle when she’s running at speed. Unfortunately she incurred an injury in the second half, bringing the Ealing side down to 14 players for the rest of the game.
Anne-Marie did a phemoninal job at playing fly half, despite having never played a game of rugby before, earning much praise from the team for her confident decision making and solid tackling. Such a natural!
Rachel debuted for the Jades at flanker, making critical contributions in tackling and the retention of the ball at breakdown before being moved into the backs for further supportive play. Also really proud of Tara’s support on the wing. It’s great to see her develop confidence on the field and press forward in attack. We look forward to all of these ladies figuring prominently in future match reports.
Back of the match – Alice Law, in the words of Stefan (Jade’s Coach), she played a ‘stormer’ of a game. Forward of the match – Nicky Dent, consistantly pressing forward with power, making great tackles and many great No.8 pickups!
Great to have Kelly Lambert back (borrowed from Wasps), in at prop (thankfully saving me from a scary debut in the front row!) and indepensible in a game with a high scrum count! Uncontested scrums for much of the second half meant we all had a chance to swap around postions and have a bit of a laugh with the Marlow girls who did the same.
With a final score of 22-0 to Marlow, we joined them in celebrating the first game of the season with the Marlow tradition of an after-game swim in the river! So cold!! But great for the aching muscles and a good laugh.
According to Stefan, its perhaps the best he has ever seen us play, and since its only the first game of the season this bodes well for the rest of the season. Come on Jades, this is our year to get some wins on the board and take some steps up the ladder!
