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On a wet and windy day the Kent under 15 squad travelled to Brighton to face another double header, this time agains Essex and Sussex.
Having beaten both teams - on in a fixture and the other in a friendly, we were still concerned that both teams were playing under strength in previous encounters and that the challenge today would be different.
Kent vs. Essex
The Essex game was up first with Flo kicking out deep into their half with a strong follow up. It wasnt long before the pack recovered and recycled the ball to the backs for Aegean to dance around the defenders on the right wing and eventually running in an unconverted try.
Following the kick off Kent were back into the Essex half laying on the pressure. Essex defended well and withstood several minutes of pressure before a testing run from Florence, charging the defence and switching the ball from hand to hand to fend off seveal tackles created a weakness that was fully exploited by our crash tackling centre Lydia to run in our second try - converted by Kent captain Florence.
In the next phase of play Kent once again put Essex underpressure and Rose, employed her characteristic side step and several body spins to release tackles and run in a perfect individual try, again converted by Florence under the posts. Just prior to the end of the first half, the pressure from Kent paid off once more with Kent utility player Sharn-Lousie showing her legendary pace to run in a further try.
Throughout the first half Full-back Kerri, still recovering from tonsilitis, had the game covered, and made several runs with the line to put pressure on Essex. Kent made several changes at half time to give some of our lest experiences players a taste of the action. And some of the Kent newcomers this season, Georgia and Becks from Thanet put in a sterling performance to show their potential.
Following the award of a penalty to Essex and a few missed tackles, Essex efforts were rewarded with a try. However the Kent team again got the bit between the teeth with some very committed tackling from Aiofe (commented on by the ref) and Faye and Laura showing their pace and committment put pay to any further thoughts of Essex scoring.
A great performance by a team with strength in depth to win 24-5.
Kent vs. Sussex
As the weather and light continued to worsen, Kent faced Sussex. One of our key attributes is the ability to move the ball around the field. With winds gusting and intermittent rain, combined with a very poor surface, we realised that we would be challenged to move the ball around. Further - while the Sussex team has less experience than Kent they were certainly much "bigger" than we remembered them, their pack towering over ours. And finally, a game against Sussex is always about "who will put on the South East shirt" later in the season. The girls are acutely aware of that and were "eyeing" the opposition from the outset.
With the tactic to keep recyling the ball quickly (not getting into extended Mauls) and to apply the blitz defence on Sussex to ensure their centres did not have any room for manoeuvre, Kent had significantly more possession than Sussex. With continued pressure again "twinkletoes" Aegean was able to create some space on the left wing and running some excellent lines ran in for our first try. A great conversion attempt from Florence on the 5m line was just blown off track.
Natasha made signficant impact at tighthead on a strong Sussex pack, and despite a couple of knocks continued to apply a sterling performance in the scrum and the maul, with some confident runs that belie the fact that this is her first season of Rugby!.
A strong clash in the centre of the field weakened our pack with Kara leaving the game, but again our strength in depth showed, bringing on Bethany our utility forward, for another show of strength. Again we applied some pace and moved the ball around with ease but some stirling defence by Sussex prevented challenges from wing Hannah and scrum half Taz who is shaping up to be the strongest scrum half in the region in her first year at this level.
Eventually the pressure paid off with Florence applying a "pick and run" from the back of the maul to run over our second try.
While the weather continued to deteriorate, spirits did not. Tamsyn hooking for Kent is looking unstoppable, taking several scrums against the head which ensured that Kent got a lot of posession. Georgina and Lizzie also delivered a fine performance in the back line to keep pressure on Sussex talent to ensure they had very little space for the explosive runs they are known for.
Another great performance by the girls winning 10-0.
All that now remains for the Kent Girls is a final game against Surrey at Aylesford on 6th December. While this promises to be the most challenging game for us to date, we are quietly confident that our team of "little dynamo's" will once again pull off a win to make this the most successful Kent season in the history of the Under 15's team.
Well done to eveyone involved.
19th October U15 at Edenbridge
Kent 24 vs. Hants 10
A strong performance by the Kent Under 15's girls as they notch up their second victory in this years county campaign.
The Kent team started well from the kick off taking most of the possession and field position. Hants proved worthy adversaries absorbing the pressure well until an early break provided Aegean Leech with the ball and enough space to accelerate through the Hants defence running some very competent lines that left the defenders flat footed.
This try was converted by Florence Williams Fly Half.
The pressure continued with little change in the pattern of play, mostly taking place in the Hants half. Again the Kent forwards pressure was met with very strong resistance from Hants, their No.8 playing a significant role keeping Kent off the ball. The pressure continued until Aoife Fehilly the Kent no.8 broke through the Hants line for a pressure try. While this was a little further toward the try line Florence Williams converted a 35m kick with the aid of a "bounce" off the crossbar to help it over to a 14-0 lead for Kent.
In the second half Hants came out fighting, and returned some early pressure with interest scoring from a long run that started in their 22. Kent responded with more pressure and an outstanding run from second row Faye Baker that nearly resulted in her first try for the county.
In the confusion that followed the award of a scrum to Hants being upgraded to a Penalty, Hants took the opportunity with both hands to run wide and score a try again from deep in their own half.
With the score at 14-10 we were set for an interesting conclusion to the game. However the continued pressure from the Kent team delivered two further tries from Florence Williams and Aoife Fehilly. Florence scoring through a well rehearsed backs routine that saw the most of the backline handling the ball without error, and Aoife with a magnificent short run from the scrum, crashing over the line despite four defenders.
The Kent team performance was once again very powerful, and the defensive work of Kerry Morgan at full back, plus the attacking pace of Rose Atkins and Lydia Beard at Scrum Half and Inside Centre provided many challenges for the Hants teams to resolve.
We have also had several county debuts from Georgina Neary, Georgia Cordell, Lizzy Nicholls, Lily Adams, Hannah Barham, Bethany Simpson, Natasha McAneney, Laura Tolley, Sharn Louise Watson, Jessica Fisk, Tamsyn McConchie, Kara Hepper, and Tazmin Bricknell who have delivered early county performances that exceeded their experience at this level. |
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