Close, but no cigar for the Hammers Women’s 2nd XV…

Last Sunday Hammers 2XV took the short-ish trip to Chesham, playing a team that haven’t come up against a Hammers Women’s squad for a good few seasons. We’re adjacent in the table so we knew it was going to be a tight game, but as always the aim was to enjoy ourselves, playing good and competitive rugby.

Hammers started strong with early pressure and a penalty in an attacking position. Early surges forward resulted in a clear opportunity with an overlap created by some great forwards play. The backs lined up the grubber, which resulted in a gap opening up for Tara to sneak through under the posts. Successfully converted to make it 7-0.

We quickly learnt that Chesham weren’t going to let us run away with the game. Their carries were strong, they came onto the ball at pace and focused on their key carriers making ground. Despite a mammoth defensive effort that lasted for the majority of the rest of the first half, Chesham were able to flip the momentum and scored 3 tries (2 converted) in similar fashion. 7-21.

Hammers had their mental fortitude tested just before half time with a nasty injury to Krushi, who was having an outstanding game (we love you Krushi!). Never ones to back down, we came back out of the blocks in the second half with a renewed sense of focus and determination. Chesham didn’t relent, and another driving try took them to 7-26 ahead. Then came the resurgence of Hammers, we figured out how to break Chesham down – using our pace and agility  to outrun them. A period of dominance from Hammers resulted in 3 tries – with Liv, Cloe and Lucy scoring. This took us into the lead, 28-26.

We unfortunately hadn’t quite got the measure of the Chesham attack, and two more tries in the last quarter of the game built their score to 28-38. Again, our resilience came through and Rachel touched down to bring us back within a score of drawing level/winning. 35-38.

Time was against us and the final whistle blew before we could mount a last attack, final score 35-38.

It was a massive effort from the whole squad to stay close in this game, especially as we were on the back foot for long periods of time. We’ve shown improvement every week and this week was no exception. We go again in 2 weeks time! TWOOSH.

Back of the match: Cloe Ragot

Forward of the match: Laurel Dunn