Hammers Women’s 1st XV razzle and dazzle against Medway

The sun was shining down on us last Sunday as we welcomed Medway to Fortress Hurlingham. A beautiful day to be playing rugby (unless you’re in the front row).

Things got off to a flying start straight from kick off with Hammers receiving and setting up strong carries to take us out of our 22 immediately. The forwards went through their phases, driving Medway back and pulling the defence in. Alex W then unleashed the back line with quick hands setting Jess free to speed down the wing for the first try of the match 5-0. Hammers kept the pressure up, carrying hard into the Medway 22 and putting them under pressure at the set piece. A lovely cross-field kick from Alex W from a scrum on the Medway 5 metre caught their wingers napping and Jess dotted down her second in the corner 10-0. As Medway started to struggle with injuries, the tries kept coming for Hammers. Another wonderfully weighted kick from Alex put Jess under the posts again for an excellent hattrick 15–0. Chloe E was the next to get in on the scoring when a clearance kick from Medway went straight to Alex. Chloe E then put on the gas and outpaced the chasing Medway defence 22-0. The next score was also a lovely piece of backs play from a line out with hard lines fixing the Medway defence before a perfectly timed pass from Ellie H-P put Sally away to score under the posts 29-0. Finally a forward scored with Kaye bursting through the Medway defence and over the whitewash 36-0. Half-time.

With Medway rapidly losing players and having no replacements, it was agreed that we would play 10s for 20 minutes after halftime to take us to the 60 minute mark so the match would stand. Switching to 10s and the wonderful sunshine started to create a summer festival atmosphere – all that was missing was the beer instead of water breaks. Both teams took advantage of the extra space, scoring twice each to make the final 20 minutes a draw. Tara cut through the Medway defence with a lovely line and Amy D scored a classic 9 try with a quick tap and go from a penalty. 50-12 final score.

First a big thank you for Medway for coming down with 15 players and making a good game of it. A great performance for all involved – it was awesome to see so many players pulling on the 1s jersey for the first time this season and everyone made a great contribution to the match. It was a backs scoring day but it was a team performance with the hard work of the forwards creating that space out wide. All our hard work paying off, as the phases came together nicely this week. Let’s keep it up as we face up against Battersea this weekend.

Forward of the match – Georgie Colling

Back of the match – Jess Sass

Super Sub – Amy DufF