Coalville RFC provided the venue for a RFUW  Regional Under 17 Girls Festival

on Sunday afternoon 9th April with the  hosts East Midlands playing both

East and Yorkshire

In the first match of the series East beat  Yorkshire in a close

game by 15 points to 10.

The next game in the round robin format saw East  Midlands pitted against

East. The teams had met earlier in the  season away at Harpenden RFC

where East Midlands ran out winners by an  impressive 19 points to 0. East were keen to avenge the earlier  defeat and this time around they

provided much sterner  opposition.

The first half saw East Midlands in the ascendency but a  combination of poor

final pass options and a bar of soap for a rugby  ball kept the scores level.

Indeed, had it not been for a try saving tackle  close to her own try line by

winger Catherine Scutts in the final play of the  half East Midlands could

have found themselves unjustly  5 points down  at the interval.

The second half followed much the same pattern with East  Midlands having the

majority of the possession but seemingly unable to score.  The deadlock was

broken with just two minutes of play remaining. Outside  centre Emily Scarratt

made an outside break for the first time in the match and  managed to evade

the despairing East tacklers to ground  the ball by the corner flag.

The match finished shortly afterwards much to the  delight of the East

Midlands girls.

The final game of the festival saw East Midlands take on  Yorkshire. East

Midlands took an early lead wiith winger Mica Grossett breaking  a number of

taclkes to score under the posts. The next try for East  Midlands came following a

superb passing move down the right hand side of  the pitch. The ball was

popped off before contact through several support  runners hands allowing flanker

Kathryn Gowler to crash over in the corner. From  the re start East Midlands

failed to secure the ball and allowed Yorkshire back  into the game with the

easiest of tries.

The second half saw committed play from both sides with  East Midlands having

much the better of the possession. Late tries by  centre Vicky Fleetwood

converted by Natalie Callaghan and Emily Scarratt who  converted her own try gave

a final score of 24 points to 5 to see them top the  table.

RFUW Under 17 Regional Festival - Final  Placings

POSITION              PLAYED     WON   DRAWN LOST     POINTS FOR  POINTS 

AGAINST

EAST MIDLANDS         2              2             0         0               

 29                     5

EAST                   2             1              0         1                

15                     15

YORKSHIRE                 2              0              0         2          

      15                     39

East Midlands Squad ;

Garbutt, Roberts, Wormington, Steward, Pridham, Parsons,  Mc Philimery,

Weighman,Wild, Burke, Jones, Walker - Smart, Nicholls, Scarratt,  Scutts, Boxx,

Coulbeck, Wild, Creaser, Cowlam, Eggleshaw, Gowler, Bradley,  Watson, Callaghan,

O' Hara, Fleetwood, Grossett  &  Sharpe