Hampshire ‘Love Rugby’ Events

The past 2 weekends have seen a flurry of Girl’s Rugby being played in the UK, with 3 of our age groups joining Hampshire ‘Love Rugby’ events at Eastleigh, PortUSfield and Trojans. 2 of our U12’s joined in an all-weather-pitch session with new player Bethany Millar being awarded player of the team in her first training game. The fast-developing U16 team saw their biggest squad yet visit the newly combined PortUSfield team for a friendly. The team lead by captain Maisie Kybett faced a very experienced opposition and showed continuous improvement as the game went on and they grew in confidence. Although they finished with a 62-31 scoreline, the performance highlight was a hat-trick from Alice Williams including a touchdown when the opposition fumbled in their own try area showing you should always play to the whistle. Paige De Gruchy took on duties as kicker for the first time, scoring 3 out of 4 conversions. New players Amy McAllister and Olivia Winch showed off their newly found skills with excellent commitment to contact and some great running with the ball. Cara Williams tackled ferociously as did Iris Wilmett in only her second season.

Next it was the turn of the U14’s to visit Trojans with over 100 other players making a 5 round tournament. In the spirit of developing rugby performance and confidence no scores or rankings were made. The winner was rugby itself as our team of 8 with 2 new players had their first game together joining with Basingstoke to make up the 15 a side team. The improvement from the first game to the last was obvious with Alex Dimopoulos scoring her first try and being named player of the day. Indie Holden showed great tackling determination and captain Maggie Mann at fly half started to build a great pairing with scrum half Megan de Gruchy.

Their next games are on 2^nd March and we look forward to seeing the outstanding development of these 3 teams.

We would like to thank our main sponsor, Santander International and SG Kleinwort Hambros for their continued support as well as Jersey Sport for travel grant funding.

U12s – Lauren Houghton, Bethany Millar.

U14s – Maggie Mann (c), Megan de Gruchy, Poppy Johnson, Alex Dimopoulos, Indie Holden, Hannah Gillyett, Evie Glennon, Maise Luff

U16s – Maisie Kybett (c), Cara Williams, Paige de Gruchy, Olivia Winch, Amy McAllister, Sari Hunt, Alice Williams, Iris Wilmett, Brooke Godwin, Hannah Stevenson, Olivia Langlands, Mollie Pye. 

Julia Williams, Michael Wilkes, Kirsten Slatter and James Kent