Last Sunday the women went on the long journey to Basingstoke. It was the first time the two teams had faced each other, so excitement was high. Unfortunately the home team only had 11 players on their side versus a sub-strong G's side. To make a good and fair game of rugby possible, one of the G's put on a Basingstoke shirt and everyone agreed to a 12 a side match.

The kick off to G's saw McCarthy with an awesome first carry of the match, which set the tone nicely. Basingstoke were determined in defence however, and due to a lack of support on the Gs side, they quickly turned over the ball and scored their first try within a few minutes. Just a couple of phases later, Basingstoke scored again leaving the score at 10-0. Could our women react and get their heads in the game to turn things around? Basingstoke felt confident and hungry for more. G’s league ambitions were under serious threat! A series of dangerous line breaks almost saw them score again, but those try attempts were held up every time by Wallis with strong support from O'Donoghue and Sutton!

Gs were desperate now to not let them score again, and to get some points on the board for themselves! Fighting back, they continued to work hard and were rewarded with their first try of the match, scored by Lee, through a huge overlap in the back line that was converted by Lewis.

Confidence begun to return but alas, they still had to catch up! Just 10 minutes later G’s had a scrum very close to the tryline. McCarthy, at 8, took the ball from the scrum and passed to Lewis. Another beautifully timed pop pass from Lewis, back inside to McCarthy, led to a second try for G's! Even though the conversion was narrowly missed, this meant the first half ended with G's leading by 2 points. 10-12.

The very physical game saw a lot of injuries on the Basingstoke side, which forced the G's to drop to 11 players to match their opponents. Nevertheless, Gs finally managed to work up to their usual level with another try from a strong break by Em just at the beginning of the second half, followed by another one from Lee. Both were successfully converted by Lewis. The second half saw G’s unstoppable and Em broke through the line again for her second try of the game. 15 minutes to play on the clock, but the game was called off early as there were too many injuries on Basingstoke’s side to continue.

The final score was 10-29, cementing G' firmly in 2nd place in the table, 1 point behind the leaders with a game in hand. They will be in action again at home this Sunday for their final game of the season against Camberley! A win here will clinch the league which would be an incredible feat in our Women’s first full competitive season. Please put this in your diary as a much watch at Saint Hill next Sunday at 2pm. See you all there!!