Following on from a wet festive period, GAB U16 girls resumed their National Cup campaign with a tough road trip to Bristol to face last season’s champions Dings Crusaders, in the Semi-Final of the SW Regional competition.

With no reserves, GAB took to the field and found out quickly we were in a contest. After repelling several Dings attacking raids in a really tough opening 15mins, a scrum saw GAB score from 60m out, moving through 6 phases and 14 pairs of hands – with Lexie dotting the ball over after a sensational team effort. With the conversion from Immy GAB took an important 7-0 lead.

Dings came back strongly in the first half to lead 12-7 at the break and while lesser teams would have resigned themselves to fate – GAB kept on going....

A try to Cate saw GAB square it up early in the second half, but a heart-breaking try against the run of play saw Dings find themselves 17-12 up with 15mins to play.

Dings began playing with confidence, but GAB grafted their way back into the game and sustained pressure from the pack saw Cate snipe over for her second try. The conversion from Immy saw GAB regain the lead with a tricky 10mins left to play.

Rugby sides with less verve and all round joie de vivre would have sat back and defended the lead, but with 10mins of rugby to be had, GAB decided to make it running rugby. With hard running matched with silken handling skills, GAB moved the ball from deep in their own 22 twice, to score two further tries, both from Lexie, both converted by Immy (perfect with the boot on the day), to in the end run away convincing winners 33-17.

Whilst a total team performance – the hard running and deft touch that saw Lexie score a hat-trick of tries deserves mention, as does the continue uncompromising running lines of Lily. In the loose Bethany continued in her quest to get herself to the bottom of any ruck going. In the backs, Cate continually probed the base of the ruck, Izzy was a deserved Player of the Match with her hard yards up the middle and aggressive defence, as well as Portia with her free-spirited roaming in the wider channels.

Now onward to a home SW Regional final in early March where we’ll be hosting Ivybridge.

GAB 33:
Lexie x3 tries
Cate x2 tries
Immy x4 conversions

beat Dings Crusaders 17

Player of the match Izzy.