Casuals Denied in the Closing Seconds

A very cold start to the year for Casuals U14 girls away at Coalville facing a very strong MAC team. The early part of the first half saw Casuals on the back foot score wise due to MAC playing to their strengths, utilising powerful runners through the middle channel, which led to 2 tries for them in the first 10 minutes. Some solid tackling and rucking by Casuals against a very physical MAC pack kept the scoreline within reach during the middle of the half, with Casuals rallying well to play some well structured multi-phased rugby that led to Maizey scoring a classic No. 8 try, running a direct line through several MAC defenders, which was successfully converted by Aoife. Casuals continued to play well structured rugby, stringing several attacking phases together, which toward the end of the half led to a brilliant try from the back line, with Orla breaking several tackles to carry the ball over. MAC managed a break away try in the dying moments of the half to go into halftime leading 19-12.

The second half opened in much the same vein as the first, with MAC’s play characterised by some very strong ball carrying breaking through the Casuals line. This led to an early try for MAC, putting them 26-12 ahead. Casuals managed to neutralise this attack early in the half by getting their defensive line forward quickly, with our back row targeting their ball carriers. Casuals failed to capitalise on a couple of good opportunities in the middle of the half, by allowing the MAC defence to re-organise itself after being penalised, but continued to play excellent rugby that neutralised the MAC attack. A period of sustained attack from Casuals, with the ball being carried into contact by the pack, followed up with solid rucking and interspersed with the back line running penetrating lines, led to Daisy scoring after shrugging off more than one tackle to dive in by the corner flag. Casuals looked to be on the front foot by this stage and another try followed soon after with Aoife taking advantage of a penalty on the MAC 5m line to score from a cleverly taken tap and go penalty. This brought the score to MAC 26 Casuals 22. Casuals continued to finish strong but Captain Anna was denied the winning try by a frustrating knock-on decision in the final moments on the MAC try line.

Casuals can walk away from the match rightly proud of the way they played as they put on a show of very well executed rugby in the best tradition of Casuals, playing the pattern practiced in training and showing grit and determination to the end against very physical opponents. Every member of the team made a positive contribution, and no one was carried.

Choosing the player of the match and TREDS player of the match was very difficult as there were so many contenders. All our girls deserved the TREDS player award; they all showed great teamwork, they were respectful of the ref despite being frustrated by some of the decisions, they looked like they enjoyed the game despite just missing out on the win, their discipline was solid under sustained attack from MAC and they all showed sporting play, asking the MAC girls if they were okay after hard tackling and rucking from Casuals. It was decided that the TREDS player of the match would go to Poppy, who showed fantastic dedication by travelling from Oxford to play the game, and because of the positive attitude she showed throughout the match. The player of the match went to Aoife who showed fantastic rugby IQ all game, organising the backs and putting in some brilliantly executed tactical kicks from hand to turn the opponents, and gain significant ground for Casuals. All this in her first match back after injury.