Women’s Rugby top of BUCS

After a slow start to the BUCS campaign with matches cancelled due to weather and the other sides being unable to field teams, Women’s Rugby kicked off their second BUCS game against Surrey. The squad were ready to take on what was thought to be a tough match since Surrey were topping the table before the game.

Once the other side came out of the dressing room, it was apparent that that Surrey had only 12 players. Dropping both flankers and full back, the game took on a fluidity and openness much more likened to playing rugby 7s.

Imperial started the game by kicking deep into Surrey’s half and the scoring opened with the backs being fed off some strong rucking from the forwards. Inside centre Lucy Olliff had hold of the ball inside Surrey’s 22 and made an excellent offload over the heads of Surrey players to Carolanne Vouriot who ran in support and evaded several tackles to go over the line on the wing. In difficult conditions against the wing, kicker Lana Lee made an impressive conversion attempt, which unfortunately hit the posts. After this missed attempt, Lana would go on to convert all the other tries scored.

At the restart, Pip Heggie caught the ball running full tilt and broke several tackles to advance into Surrey’s half. Following several powerful scrums, Imperial were awarded a penalty which was taken quickly by scrum half, Kath Fok, took advantage of Surrey’s slow reactions and poor organisation to go over and score. In fact, this same trick would be pulled off by Kath in a later try.

For the rest of the first 40 minutes, Imperial dominated and camped inside Surrey’s half. With ball in hand following the restart, another try was scored when the ball was passed out into the backs where Lucy, Carolanne and Amy Humphreys broke the line and ran circles around Surrey’s wingers and put Lucy in over the line under the posts.

The game gave Imperial the opportunity to try several different combinations. Both Charlie Stephens and Juliette Lennon were called to play for both the backs and forwards. By half time, the score stood at 54-0 and the forward pack were able to experiment with short lineouts from Lana as hooker. Just inside the 22, the ball went to Sarah Burns who powered over the line. Unfortunately, the referee deemed that the ball had been held up.

Before second half went underway, the referee explicitly told Imperial that he would be stricter with the whistle and also reduce the half to 30 minutes. Surrey were able to respond and with penalties going against Imperial, the opposition finally put Imperial on the defensive. The ball was turned over with Charlie and Sarah Burns both ripping the ball off the opposition on several occasions and Kath broke from deep with a kick chase that saw her score again under the posts despite being impeded off the ball. The other second half try was scored by Carolanne who demonstrated her 7s background to evade tacklers in a run that spanned half the pitch.

Forward of the match was tightly contested with special mention to forwards Charlie and Pip and Carolanne in the backs. Ultimately the honours were awarded to Sarah and Kath. This result puts Imperial at the top of BCUS 2A and setting up the remaining fixtures of the season as an exciting battle for promotion.