Back
Watford U12 cluster girls take on Hertford at their Pitch Up & Play
Fionn McGuinness11 Nov - 13:17
On Remembrance Sunday, the WatfFul's girls' cluster played in 4 matches at their Pitch Up&Play events.
Remembrance Sunday saw WafFuls travel to the latest Pitch up and play at Hertford
RFC, we had good numbers for this one which meant we did not have to cluster with any
other clubs so a good opportunity to see what the girls could do together.
Conditions for this one proved fair with the ground soft but dry so a good afternoon of
Rugby was expected, we would be playing 4 games against Bishop Stortford,
Stockwood/Harpenden/OAs, Hertford, and Welwyn.
Game 1 Vs Bishop Stortford D 3-3
A team we have not played before, Bishop Stortford had good numbers we started the
match 10v10 due to some late arrivals and once they had warmed up we wen to our full
compliment of 12v12, some good contests in and around the ruck saw Bishop Stortford
break our line to score the first try of the game, not to be outdone, we struck back
quickly and after a sustained period of play in the oppositions half and working towards
their try line, Arabella, surged forward to tie the match with a powerful try.
We had lapse in concentration and Stortford hit back quickly with two quick try’s
punishing slow reaction to their quick runners, making the scoreline 1-3. This spurred
the girls into life and again some great play through the phases saw an intelligent pass
out of the ruck from Cordelia to the powerful run of Grace down the wing to dot down for
our 2nd try to make the match 2-3, with time running out a good chase from the kick off
put pressure on the Stortford defense and Tilly managed to gather the loose ball and
with some good footwork and speed she powered over the line to tie up the game. just in
time as the referees whistle went for the end of the game.
9/11/25 - Pitch Up And Play At Hertford RFC
Game 2 Vs Harpenden/Stockwood/OAs-L2-3
A team we have come up against a few times now, we started the game slow struggling
to close down attacks and not holding our discipline in our defensive lines, this meant
us going behind quite quickly 0-3. We finally managed to get some good passages of
play together and pulled a try back with Lana making a determined run breaking away
after ripping the ball out of the mall. The game went back and forth with neither team
making any headway until Bowe managed to break the line and find some space to
score our 2nd try, unfortunately the come back wasn’t on as the ref blew for full time but
a valiant effort from the girls in the final stages.
Game 3 Vs Hertford W 3-2
Straight across to the next game, the girls picked up where they finished the last game,
we played Hertford a couple of weeks ago and narrowly lost a tight game but this week
the girls came out fighting and some good work again through the phases saw Lana pop
up down the left wing to score in the corner, rather fortunately as she had overrun the try
area but due to confusion of cone placement the Ref awarded us the try. Hertford came
back quite quickly after we chose to kick off, and a good gather of the loose ball saw
their player run through a big gap in our defence to pull away and level the score. This
game saw the girls communicate well together and start to play tactically from the
kickoff with Bowe and Tilly using a good kick chase to put pressure on the defence and
cause problems we recycled the ball well from the ruck to give Lana her 2nd try. Again,
Hertford fought back and managed to use their speed down the wing which we could
not quite match and leveled the score for the second time. Again, we used the kickoff to
our advantage targeting one of their players and after some determined running we
went down the left wing again with Grace this time adding our third and winning try just
as the Referee blew for full time. A great determined win.
Game 4 Vs Welwyn L1-2 (game cut short due to injuries)
Our last game and some really tired legs, fortunately, Welwyn only had 8 fit players so
we matched numbers, and this meant we were able to rotate the team, however with
the pitch becoming more spacious and tired legs we were never in this game, Welwyn
had some strong runners and managed to break through the tiring defence scoring 2
try’s quite quickly. We held in and again started to push forward, some good
advancement through the phases we kept pushing but just couldn’t find the space to
score until the last few minutes when Arabella dived over for a consolation.
Unfortunately, the game was then called for full time as a Welwyn lost a couple of
players quickly to injury and had there been more time I think we would have managed
to sneak a draw if not go on to win.
9/11/25 - Pitch Up And Play At Hertford RFC
Four games in a short space of time will take its toll but we as coaches were impressed
by the play in all the matches, unfortunately score-lines don’t always show how well a
team plays and even though we had a mixed bag of results small margins in our favour
could have seen the results a little differently so well done all the girls throughout the
afternoon.
WatFuls Player of the Day: Arabella (WatFul’s) – fantastic tackling, securing turnover ball
and some great work around the breakdown as well as scoring a couple of try’s
Watfuls Most improved player: Cordelia some great play from scrum half, much
better work around scrums and directing her teammates
RFC, we had good numbers for this one which meant we did not have to cluster with any
other clubs so a good opportunity to see what the girls could do together.
Conditions for this one proved fair with the ground soft but dry so a good afternoon of
Rugby was expected, we would be playing 4 games against Bishop Stortford,
Stockwood/Harpenden/OAs, Hertford, and Welwyn.
Game 1 Vs Bishop Stortford D 3-3
A team we have not played before, Bishop Stortford had good numbers we started the
match 10v10 due to some late arrivals and once they had warmed up we wen to our full
compliment of 12v12, some good contests in and around the ruck saw Bishop Stortford
break our line to score the first try of the game, not to be outdone, we struck back
quickly and after a sustained period of play in the oppositions half and working towards
their try line, Arabella, surged forward to tie the match with a powerful try.
We had lapse in concentration and Stortford hit back quickly with two quick try’s
punishing slow reaction to their quick runners, making the scoreline 1-3. This spurred
the girls into life and again some great play through the phases saw an intelligent pass
out of the ruck from Cordelia to the powerful run of Grace down the wing to dot down for
our 2nd try to make the match 2-3, with time running out a good chase from the kick off
put pressure on the Stortford defense and Tilly managed to gather the loose ball and
with some good footwork and speed she powered over the line to tie up the game. just in
time as the referees whistle went for the end of the game.
9/11/25 - Pitch Up And Play At Hertford RFC
Game 2 Vs Harpenden/Stockwood/OAs-L2-3
A team we have come up against a few times now, we started the game slow struggling
to close down attacks and not holding our discipline in our defensive lines, this meant
us going behind quite quickly 0-3. We finally managed to get some good passages of
play together and pulled a try back with Lana making a determined run breaking away
after ripping the ball out of the mall. The game went back and forth with neither team
making any headway until Bowe managed to break the line and find some space to
score our 2nd try, unfortunately the come back wasn’t on as the ref blew for full time but
a valiant effort from the girls in the final stages.
Game 3 Vs Hertford W 3-2
Straight across to the next game, the girls picked up where they finished the last game,
we played Hertford a couple of weeks ago and narrowly lost a tight game but this week
the girls came out fighting and some good work again through the phases saw Lana pop
up down the left wing to score in the corner, rather fortunately as she had overrun the try
area but due to confusion of cone placement the Ref awarded us the try. Hertford came
back quite quickly after we chose to kick off, and a good gather of the loose ball saw
their player run through a big gap in our defence to pull away and level the score. This
game saw the girls communicate well together and start to play tactically from the
kickoff with Bowe and Tilly using a good kick chase to put pressure on the defence and
cause problems we recycled the ball well from the ruck to give Lana her 2nd try. Again,
Hertford fought back and managed to use their speed down the wing which we could
not quite match and leveled the score for the second time. Again, we used the kickoff to
our advantage targeting one of their players and after some determined running we
went down the left wing again with Grace this time adding our third and winning try just
as the Referee blew for full time. A great determined win.
Game 4 Vs Welwyn L1-2 (game cut short due to injuries)
Our last game and some really tired legs, fortunately, Welwyn only had 8 fit players so
we matched numbers, and this meant we were able to rotate the team, however with
the pitch becoming more spacious and tired legs we were never in this game, Welwyn
had some strong runners and managed to break through the tiring defence scoring 2
try’s quite quickly. We held in and again started to push forward, some good
advancement through the phases we kept pushing but just couldn’t find the space to
score until the last few minutes when Arabella dived over for a consolation.
Unfortunately, the game was then called for full time as a Welwyn lost a couple of
players quickly to injury and had there been more time I think we would have managed
to sneak a draw if not go on to win.
9/11/25 - Pitch Up And Play At Hertford RFC
Four games in a short space of time will take its toll but we as coaches were impressed
by the play in all the matches, unfortunately score-lines don’t always show how well a
team plays and even though we had a mixed bag of results small margins in our favour
could have seen the results a little differently so well done all the girls throughout the
afternoon.
WatFuls Player of the Day: Arabella (WatFul’s) – fantastic tackling, securing turnover ball
and some great work around the breakdown as well as scoring a couple of try’s
Watfuls Most improved player: Cordelia some great play from scrum half, much
better work around scrums and directing her teammates
Further reading