On St Patricks weekend, the U16’s played their final league fixture of the season against OA’s. The match had the build-up from previous encounters in the season, having won 1 and lost 1 in earlier friendly fixtures, both with tight score lines.

The first 15 minutes saw WHS dominate ball possession, burying themselves in OA’s half with an onslaught of carries whilst simultaneously starving OA’s of possession. Whilst there were several small pockets of OA’s attacking, they were shit down swiftly with Phoebe, Kadi and Poppy jackaling the ball and stealing it back for the WHS girls. WHS continued to make good progress battering the OA girls with a barge of heavy carries, making constant half breaks through OA’s line, occasionally spreading it wide. OA’s remained resilient, though, and did extremely well to absorb all the tackles made and not let WHS convert the early success into any points.

A scrum near the centre of the pitch enabled OA’s to show their successful attacking prowess. Off the scrum, a kick was sent over the OA’s defensive line and was well-tracked and caught by the OA’s fullback. She ran around a few attempted tackles and the length of the pitch before stumbling around 5m out from the try line. However, OA’s had several players supporting their fullback, so they quickly regathered the ball and scored the following phase.

By this point, OA’s had settled into the game and started getting some possession of the ball. With some great direct runs and successful offloads, they made ground on the WHS girls quickly. However, once again a successful turnover, this time from Freya, saw WHS steal the ball back. With attacks mimicking the first 15 minutes and the help of a few quick tap penalties, W found themself within 5m of the OA try line. The girls went head-on with some crash balls, before passing it out to Jess, as she stepped inside 3 players, shrugging another off and dived over the try line for a try.

OA’s quickly bounced back, with their outside backs proving to be lethal in attack, exploiting space on the outsides of the pitch as their wingers and outside centres flooded the space scoring another few tries back-to-back.

HT - WHS 5 - 24 OA’s

The second half kicked off much like the first half ended; with OA’s going through 8 phases before identifying space in the backs and spreading it wide to score again.

The WHS girl's managed to level it up after this with some great game play and keeping that ball in possession forcing OA’s to expend their energy tackling us. However, OA’s didn’t crack, with some great line speed from the OA girls and a loose ball given by one of the WHS girls in an attempted offload, no time was wasted by OA’s as they spread the ball wide to score their second try of the half.

The last portion of the game the WHS had some good field awareness from the girls as OA’s relentlessly attacked in the WHS half with our girls using a variety of tactics to relieve the pressure on their defence, pushing the OA girls back to halfway on a couple of occasions. However, the WHS had began to tire after expending a lot of energy in the last 15 minutes, and once again, the OA girls found the wing to be left undefended and spread the ball straight out to the wing for the final score of the game.

Full Time - WHS 5 - 41 OA’s

The girls played a tough match against a very well-drilled OA’s team who didn’t hold back, they played a very good side and did well to capitalise on WHS mistakes. The WHS were resilient and exhibited why they have been successful this season, they showed a brilliant attitude in attack and some brave and hearty defence. All it took was a couple of lapses in defensive judgement, and the OA girls had the awareness and skills to score off the back of it.

Forward of the Match - Layla (Watford): Proving to be reliable in both attack and defence making all the tackles that came her way and was very active behind the scenes, hitting rucks and protecting the ball from OA’s ever-present jackalling threats
Back of the Match - Immy (Harpenden): Immy put in a huge amount of effort on the pitch, her defensive shift was brilliant, she made a huge tackle on the OA’s winger in a crucial part of the game, very worhty of a shoutout. Immy showed great awareness with the ball when play got scrappy as she dived on top of the ball to help WHS retain attack in key areas of the pitch.

Girl of the match: Phoebe (Watford): Phoebe played very well, moving between No.8, inside and outside centre on numerous occasions when required to, she was everywhere in attack and defence. She made multiple jackals and turnovers, and she was breaking tackles and gaining running metres like there wasn’t a defence in front of her. She was a standout player against OA’s!