Imperial lose at Chichester

Imperial’s 11 players were prepared take on the table-topping Chichester, who had yet to drop a point this season. The opponents kicked off the first half and chased well to settled into Imperial’s 22. They retained possession through numerous phases and combined well between forwards and backs. Good support in defense saw Imperial turn the ball on several occasions but were unable to clear their lines having to kick against the blistering wind. Chichester even managed to make their way over the 5 m line, but Imperial held firm despite playing the first 10 minutes in their own half.

After winning possession, Imperial finally carried the ball over the half way line. Edging towards the 22 yard line, Pip Heggie crashed through the opposition’s forward pack and drew in defenders. Support followed swiftly and fly half Kath Fok stepped around her opposite number 10 and took on three of the opposition offloading from the ground to Charlotte Stephens. She passed on to the outside centre and back of the match Carolanne Vouriot who came running at speed. She crashed and weaved her way through several tackles to go over the line. Imperial drew first blood and scrum half Lana Lee converted the try for the 7-0 lead.

Again Chichester came back strong. They finally saw sense to go wide and take advantage of their extra player in their backline and coupled this with strong runs from their fullback. Even with organised defensive play, Imperial were a player down and Chichester were able to run around the outside to score on the wing. Imperial held on until just before half time where again the backs were outnumbered and Chichester found space to run through and score a second try. At the half time whistle, the score stood at 7-10.

Imperial returned the favour from the kick off in the second half to camp in Chichester’s half. A clearing kick was charged down by Kath Fok and Imperial reacted well to win possession. Within their 5 m line, Chichester’s players were scrambling in defense and conceeded penalty for not rolling away at the tackle. The resulting penalty saw Captain Pip Heggie run a short dummy line with the ball instead going long to Charlie Stephens who powered through for a the fourth try of the match. Taking the conversion again, Imperial were in the lead at 14-10.

With plenty of time still on the clock, Chichester kept running at Imperial and their backs had many set plays to show off. In a moment of creativity, their outside centre chased her own kick into space behind Imperial’s line. Full back Sammy Gottardi worked hard to chase her back and the resulting pressure prevented Chichester from grounding the ball successfully.

There was an impressive effort from Imperial’s defense with forward of the match Alice Liberman putting in countless tackles around the breakdown and supporting quickly over the rucks to turn over Chichester ball. Likewise, the midfield pair of Charlie and Carolanne were impenetrable and making Chichester to go wide and forcing their backline into making mistakes. Still Chichester had not choice but keep trying to go to their extra player on the outside where they were met by Sammy and winger Rabia Lakhani who combined to prevent them breaking down the far side.

Chichester were always threatening and eventually changed tack. Their outside centre to cut back against the traffic and broke through behind the breakdown from the 22, running through to score. Unable to take the conversion, Imperial were still only one point behind at 14-15, with 15 minutes of play left.

However, the intensity of the game proved to be too much and Chichester were able to bring on their fresh legs whilst continuing to pile pressure onto Imperial. Despite the heroic effort from across the team to retain recycle the ball in attack and fend off Chichester’s onslaught, they eventually scored twice more with the game finishing at 14-27.

With the last game of BUCS completed, the team turn to their remaining two games in LUSL, needing wins in both games to retain the title!