Sun 13 Mar 2022
On a bright warm sunny day North Dorset Women’s 1st XV welcomed Ellingham & Ringwood to Slaughtergate for a friendly. It was set to be a challenging encounter as the away team are 2 leagues above North Dorset’s developing women’s squad. We had a few new debutants in Lauren Armson at full back and returning player after a few seasons Katie Switzer in the front row.
After lots of back-and-forth play, ND debutant Armson gathered a clearance kick and headed to the corner to be tackled short but managed a brilliant offload to Emily Kendal to score (5-0) conversion unsuccessful. Some sloppy defending by North Dorset let E&R make a few phases up the pitch which resulted in a massive gap opening, and E&R ran through to score making it 5-5. Bulldozer Louisa Neale then responded as usual with a pickup from the base of the scrum, running 22 metres and sitting down 2 players to make the score 10-5 (Con unsuccessful). Dorset responded next again, with an unbelievable team effort, running 60 metres with about 6 offloads to 6 different players, resulting in Kaitlyn Phillips scoring under the posts converted by Kate Collins making the score 17-5. Jamie George (BoB) with some fantastic carries, results in great field position and allows debutant Lauren Armson to score in the corner making the score 22-5 (unconverted) after a few bits of pressure from both sides the half time whistle blew with the score at 22-5.
The half started with a few penalties to E&R who sustained 7 minutes of intense pressure, which eventually crumbled out defence resulting in a try which was unconverted making the score 22-10. Lots of pressure followed next on our try line, a great defensive effort holding up their powerful number 8 on our line, then pressure on the backs results in loose ball, that is fly hacked and gathered by Catherine Stonebridge who runs the length of the pitch to score making it 27-10. A period of about 20 minutes of pressure for both teams came next with no result for either team.
Finally, some reward for the pressure came with some good hard running by Budge and Sofia which allowed a beautiful offload to Kaitlyn Phillips for her second which was unconverted making the score 32-10. Some pressure then followed which resulted in some fantastic individual play by the E&R number 10 who scored and converted to make the score 32-17. Almost another try at the death but unfortunately knocked on so the game finished 32-17.
Forward of the match went to Katie Switzer for her outstanding communication and work rate and back of the match went to Debutant Lauren Armson whose strength and ball handling was exemplary.
