Chelmsford Bluebirds welcomed to BSRFC

On a brisk Sunday afternoon on the 1st December, BSRFC Ladies welcomed Chelmsford Ladies to Silver Leys for an eagerly anticipated match.

Stortford made a swift start to the match with a dynamic attack which lead to the loss of No 4 Hayler Fryer due to a knee injury and brought substitute No 16 Eve McInerney on to the field. A great run by No 8, Captain, Georgia Read and a superb offload led to the first try of the match and the first in Stortford colours for McInerney within the first 5 minutes which was duly converted by No 5 Jemma Goddard.

The visitors fought back testing Stortford’s great defence and line speed and a quick running line sliced through the Stortford defence giving the visitors their 1st try and bringing the score to 7-5.

Stortford kicked to restart which lead to the first line out of the match and a fantastic rip by returning forward, No 1 Eloise Augustine and a slick pass to No 3 Emily Fellowes-Prynne allowed Stortford to show off penetrating attacking lines with an unfortunate knock on leading to a turnover ball to Chelmsford and a Chelmsford scrum.

Read put in a strong tackle to put the visitors on the back foot and a strong defensive line pushed them away from the try line with great contesting from the Stortford defence.

Outstanding tackles from No 12 Mia Richey and Goddard kept Stortford involved but an unfortunate penalty led to a loss of ground.

An injury to one of the Chelmsford Ladies lead to an ambulance being called and the game being moved to the adjoining pitch.

After a brief hold, the game restarted with the visitors kicking. A number of penalties conceded pushed Stortford back to their try line enabling the visitors to power through the defence and chalk up another try to bring the score to 7-10.

In retaliation, Read stormed through the visitors defence with a strong tackle stopping her run just shy of the try line. A penalty was awarded to Stortford and Goddard pushed through a solid defence from the visitors to the try line but the try was considered to be held up by the referee and not given.

A scrum on Stortford’s try line led to the visitors making ground in attack with a turnover ball and some fancy footwork from Richey and No 13 Caroline Moore putting the pressure back onto the visitors.

A great carry by Goddard and a kick from Read gave the momentum back to Stortford and the opportunity to advance up the pitch.

A line out to Stortford lead to a scrum to the visitors due to a diagonal ball. The visitors attacked swiftly gaining valuable ground before a crunching tackle by No 15 Kate Hazelwood and a head injury to one of visitors backs lead to half-time being called.

The second half began with a substitution with No 17 Lucy McInerney donning the Stortford colours for the first time. A rapid start by the visitors and slow line speed by Stortford lead to a quick try being scored within the first 2 minutes to bring the score to 7-15 with Stortford showing a solid defence to push the visitors out to their wing.

The game continued at pace with a turnover ball to Hazelwood giving her the opportunity to gain some ground before a big tackle from the visitors took her down.

A strong scrum to Stortford and some powerful play from the home side gave the advantage to Stortford with a penalty setting Chelmsford back 10 and giving Read the chance to kick into touch to take Stortford even closer to the try line.

An unfortunate turnover ball and a penalty awarded to Chelmsford saw the visitors taking back the ground with a penetrating kick into the dead ball zone with No 9 Catriona Gleed jumping on the ball to keep it alive. The visitors scrum on the try line led to a well worked try far out on the wing to bring the score to 7-20.

The game restarted with a hefty kick by Goddard and big tackle from Augustine led to Stortford getting control of the ball. In a great passage of play Stortford made great ground into the visitors half. A scrum led to a penalty to Stortford which was swiftly taken by Richey until a loose pass led to a knock on giving control back to the visiting team.

The game was stopped briefly to allow the air ambulance to land giving both teams the opportunity to catch their breath with the visitors reacting quicker after the restart to batter their way through the Stortford defence to bring the score to 7-25.

The pace of the match took its toll on the legs of the Stortford players and the pace of the visitors took them around through for their final try of the game 7-30.

A fantastic kick from Godddard down the centre of the pitch led to a great chase from Stortford with great defensive work from
No 10 Hawkins throwing herself on the ball to turn it over giving Stortford the chance to fire the ball down the line to give McInerney her second try of the game.

The visitors kicked to restart with big carries from No 6 Yasmin Knott and Fellowes-Prynne giving stortford valuable ground until a turnover ball gave control back to the visitors with a double tackle from Gleed and Hazlewood pushing the visitors into touch giving a line out to Stortford.

The line out to Stortford and fast hands down the line gave No 14 Davis the chance to fly down the wing taking Stortford out of the visitors 22 with great teamwork to move the ball back down the offside wing with L. McInerney eating up the metres into the visitors half until a crunching tackle pushed her into touch.

In the final moments of the game, Stortford pushed valiantly forwards, firing the ball down the line to give the Stortford wingers a chance to attack before the final whistle cut the attack short and brought the game to an end, giving a final score of BSRFC Ladies 12-Chelmsford Ladies 30.

A special mention needs to be made for our amazing First Aiders Lauren Bojko-Beet and Jennie Honour for their outstanding care of the injured Chelmsford player.

A well fought game with everything left on the pitch. We look forward to making the trip to Chelmsford on the 1st March and the opportunity to reverse the score line.

By Cat Gleed