This Sunday saw a very special day for the ladies as they travelled to Camberley for their first league game of the season.

Coincidentally their match also aligned with the 2 year anniversary of Matt's death. This honoured a 1 minute silence before the game and fuelled the determination in the ladies bellies.
It's safe to say they made him proud!

With a 21 women squad in play, the ladies set up with confidence to receive from a strong kick from Camberley to begin the match. After a series of strong tackles, turnovers and a high tackle from Camberley, Kraus ran a hard line to bowl through the Camberley defensive line, leaving a trail of players behind her to storm through and sprint30 meters to score the first try of the match. A well positioned try secured an easy conversion for S. Lewis.

Sensing weakness in the Camberley defense, the ladies capitalised and once again utilised the back line. Excellent hands got the ball down the line, allowing Chippy to power down the wing, handing off Camberley defenders as she went, to score the second try of the game. The more difficult positioning saw a close miss in Lewis' conversion attempt.

After struggling with scrums this time last season, the ladies have worked hard on them since, and this definitely showed on Sunday. After another successfully secured scrum, N.Lewis produced another excellent pass to a speedy Kraus who again ran a hard line through the Camberley defensive line. With lower tackles from Camberley, Kraus offloaded to Gayle in support who sprinted down the line and produced a spectacular off load, as she headed into touch, allowing Kraus to safely touch down for a third try. More lovely hands down the back line saw the ball in the expert hands of Keenor for the forth try under the posts.

Camberley were now on the counter. A break down the wing, married with some quick offloads, saw Camberley expose a small crack in the G’s defense. Powering down the wing it looked like the clean sheet for the ladies was about to be wiped. Unfortunately for Camberley, Wallis tracked across with a try-saving tackle to put the Camberley player into touch and preserve the 0 on the oppo scoreboard.

The ladies had been working on ‘heads up rugby’ through the week, focusing on fanning out in defense and this proved very successful against Camberley. Throughout the remainder of the game, the ladies held a very strong defensive line, with very little time at all spent in the G’s 22. It was from this platform that Davey scored her first, produced from unwavering confidence, speed and power off the back of a ruck, again leaving a trail of defenders in her wake.

After some earlier high tackles from Camberley, the ref was already on high alert and in an unsuccessful attempt to stop a try from Shackel down the wing, Camberley received a yellow card, putting them a women down. And approaching half time, with a number of injuries on the Camberley side, the ladies agreed to drop numbers to match the oppo’s 14, in honour of a fair game of rugby.

The start of the second half saw more of the same, with another powerful try from Davey followed by a successful conversion from S. Lewis. Camberley again dropped numbers to 13 but in the good spirit of rugby, EG ladies leant players to Camberley to try and even the sides. With pressure from Davey, Carrick and Lewis however, they manage to secure the ball once more, Lewis did what she does best and side stepped through players, and unselfishly, passed to Carrick, who drew the players in and popped the ball to Davey who was brought down on the try line, but just managed to extend her arm to safely place the ball over the line.

Unfortunately after 10 minutes of the second half, and yet more injuries for Camberley, they requested to call the game. The EG ladies, whilst disappointed to be doing so, obliged. Another 10 minutes of 'unofficial' game play and 15 minutes of fun touch, mixing the teams for a lighthearted end to the match, was a lovely way to end a very encouraging afternoon.

Thank you to Camberley for hosting a brilliant day and we look forward to welcoming you to Saint Hill later in the season!