RAF Ladies v Army Ladies

Newbury RUFC 23 Apr 08

The RAF Ladies took on the might of the Army Ladies at Newbury on a glorious sunny day at Newbury rugby club as the finale to their highly promising season came to a close. After a superb win against the Royal Navy the week previously, the RAF were short of some key players due to the high attrition of the previous week. Head coach Jon Wilding always knew that it was going to be tough encounter, with the Army having a distinct advantage of having amongst their number over 150 international caps.

Nevertheless, the RAF Ladies took the game to the Army and showed great spirit against a physically superior Army side with an abundant of talent. The RAF battled for every ounce of possession and their defence held firm in the early exchanges. The RAF scrummage and lineout provided good first phase ball and a couple of probing attacks by the RAF were countered by a resilient and well drilled Army side. In those early minutes the RAF created a couple of good opportunites only to see the last pass go astray, thus letting the Army achieve good field position and then the Army demonstrated their attacking prowess. An Army scrum against the head allowed the Army backs to move the ball from left to right, stretching the RAF defence, followed by a flowing move which created more than enough space for the Army winger to touch down in the right hand corner for the opening score of the game.

The RAF stood firm for a period of 10 minutes before a good counter-rucking by the Army turned possession over on the edge of the RAF 22m line, and then a couple of short drives around the fringe allowed the Army openside to plunge over for the second score of the game. The RAF continued to throw their bodies into their defensive duties as the Army managed to control the game by driving tight into the heart of the RAF defence, whereupon the RAF would get drawn into the rucks and mauls leaving space for the Army outside runners to operate to devastating effect with the Army full back coming into the game and making some telling runs at a tiring RAF defence. It was the Army full back who dotted down for the third try of the game making it 15-0 after 24 minutes. The next score came on the 30 minute mark, with the Army right wing sweeping across the field to end up on the end of a scoring pass in the left hand corner to make it 20-0. The RAF had to continue in their defensive duties when an Army maul marched its way to the try line, and then releasing the ball at the last second which allowed the Army scrum half to go in under the posts. The score was converted by the Army outside half to make it 27-0. The Army continued in their relentless attacking, with the Army full back once again slicing through a gap in the RAF defence to go in and score a try under the posts which was once again converted by the Army outside half to make the half time score 34-0.

The second half saw the RAF continue in their defensive duties, having to work extremely hard to counter the effectiveness of the Army back row and scrum half, the latter whose distribution was particularly quick, allowing the Army backs to really attack the RAF line. The Army managed several more scores, which put a misleading representation on the score board, with the RAF still putting in big defensive tackles and making the Army work hard for their scoring opportunities. The RAF made some darting attacks toward the end of the game, resulting in a couple of penalties that the RAF took quickly gaining valuable yardage, resulting in the award of another penalty, this time within kicking distance of the Army posts. Unfortunately, the kick did not have quite the distance that was required, but it allowed the RAF to push hard to the Army tryline only for last ditch tackling by the Army to keep the RAF from gaining a try.

The RAF Ladies have had a tough season, and displayed real progression throughout not only this season but in previous seasons and have now chalked up 2 consecutive wins against the Royal Navy, but still have work to do before a win against the Army can be recorded. The Ladies played with passion, aggression and determination against a superior Army side, and are a credit to the RAF rugby union.