Tewkesbury – Old Leamingtonians: 0 - 44

Old Leams off to flying start

A 0-44 win over Tewkesbury ensured a promising start for Old Leamingtonians women's team. The ladies are hoping to be a contender for promotion in the wMidlands 2 league. Last year they finished third and with retaining players from last season and recruiting new ones pre-season there is a large squad at Coach Tim Burden's disposal.

During the summer, the team has welcomed 5 new, mostly experienced, players. Where the start of last season was plagued with unavailabilities and injuries, this league opener gave Burden selection difficulties with 22 players to choose from.

An anxious start to the match saw some minor errors and dropped catches but Leams were patient and confident that their game would come together. Some aggressive forward play and strong running saw prop Jackie Meade power over the line after some excellent support play for the opening try.

Old Leams seemed to settle down after 20 minutes and confidence returned. This resulted in 2 more tries being scored before half-time. One by fly half Vicky Stokes and the other by the ever present inside centre Kelly McLeod, who chased a high kick up field, caught it and sprinted to the line to score in style.

Tewkesbury seemed unable to cope with the high pace of Old Leams game and their tactical kicking by Stokes saw that the ball was kept in the field of play resulting in only 1 line-out in the first half. It was clear that fitness was going to play a major part in this match of which Old Leams proved superior.

At half-time, and with 0-15 up, Old Leams knew they needed to exploit their superior fitness and did so as they ran Tewkesbury all over the park, scoring tries in each corner, breaking through the defence with some excellent backs work.

When both sides had a player sin-binned, Burden decided to try out some squad rotation. He brought new players on and put others in unfamiliar positions. It says a lot about the quality of the players as they slotted in with out causing any disruption.

They kept playing as a well organised team and ran in 5 more tries in the second half, 2 from the intimidating captain and Number 8 Christie Honor and one a piece from scrum half Charlie Graham, Full back Celina Bennett and the rampant hard hitting blind side flanker Laura Knox. Outside-centre Charlotte Hewer, who had a difficult start to the match, turned her performance around and provided invaluable support for 3 of the tries. She was awarded Player of the Match.

Old Leamingtonians were admired for their defensive qualities last year and it showed that this was going to be the case again this season as Tewkesbury were unable to crack old Leams and never really looked like scoring.

Old Leams have made a very good start to their season but they know things will get much more difficult over the next few months with some really strong opposition ahead of them. However, if Sunday's match is an indication of things to come, Old Leams are a force to be reckoned with in the battle for promotion.

This Sunday, Old Leamingtonians Women play their first home fixture of the season against Oxford. All supporters are welcome to come and watch and anybody who wishes to play rugby is welcome to come and train with the team on Wednesdays from 7.30. For more information, see the website: http://www.olrfc.co.uk/ladies

Staring Line-up:

1 Chris Lycett

2 Fiona Rose-Jebson

3 Jackie Meade

4 Marieke Vink

5 Susan Dalling

6 Laura Knox

7 Claire Penna

8 Christie Honor ©

9 Caz Lambert

10 Vicki Stokes

11 Kelly McLeod

12 Charlotte Hewer

13 Rohey Jallow

14 Jenny Martin

15 Celina Bennett

Subs Used: Katy Ingram, Michelle Ramsey, Charlie Graham & Tracey Webster

Try scorers:

Jackie Meade (Prop)

Christie Honor (x2) (Number 8)

Kelly McLeod (Inside Centre)

Charlie Graham (Scrum Half)

Laura Knox (Flanker)

Vicki Stokes (+ 2 Conversions) (Fly Half)

Celina Bennett (Winger)