Girls Match Reports

U14’s vs Sandbach (Home) September 19th 35-10 (7 tries to 2)

Sunday saw Girls rugby ‘arrive’ in Cheshire with a wonderful game of rugby between local rivals Northwich and Sandbach. Despite inexperience on both sides everybody threw themselves into the match which was highly contested throughout.
Sandbach threatened a strong back line with speed and agility but Northwich’s forwards out performed in the tight and loose play to deny them possession throughout the match. Northwich instead took the play to Sandbach forcing them to tackle with probing runs from backs Nieve Jones, Katie Stone and Melissa Beesley. Good support play from the Northwich forwards in the end helped create enough space to allow Northwich to score seven tries. With centre Melissa Beesley scoring four, Amy Johnson and Katie stone one each and a well deserved try from forward Thea Breau who helped win the ball in much of the loose play. Sandbach kept going throughout and as Northwich tired, they started to break down the Northwich defence. Although Northwich’s inexperienced line-up coped well throughout, Sandbach found a few gaps to score two tries in the second half. Bringing the final score to 7 tries to 2 (35-10).
All in all, great promise of things to come, with all the players and the supporters alike, all looking forward to the next match.

U17’s (mixed squad) vs Leek (Home) October 10th Won 56-5 (10 tries to 1)

U14’s vs Buxton (Away) October 17th Lost 19-17
The U14’s took a trip into the High Peak to play Buxton U14’s and faced a bitter wind and strong local support. Despite missing two key players Northwich were on top immediately and were unlucky to miss out on a try after a storming run from Melissa Beesley. Buxton however were a strong side and their forwards managed to win a good deal of possesion and scored two tries in the first half to one from Northwich. Northwich were not finished and rallied in the second half to come level on tries scored with a push over try from Nieve Jones and clever scrum move from Melissa Beesley. In the end just one conversion separated the two teams. At full strength Northwich will be looking forward to the return match at the RFUW tournament at Moss Farm on 21^st November.

U14’s vs Buxton (Home) November 7th Won 39-5
The Under 14’s were really looking forward to this fixture after narrowly losing against Buxton in October in their last fixture. Now back to full strength Northwich forwards dominated proceedings leaving Buxton only scrappy ball. Good maul play from Thea Breau, Katie Stone and Trina & Marie Tulloch coupled with strong runs at close quarters from all the forwards meant Buxton were always on the back foot. Half back combination of Nieve Jones & Melissa Beesley were then given plenty of options to run at the Buxton defense both been able to probe and break through the Buxton defense with Nieve scoring three tries.
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U14’s (with Bolton) vs Crewe 7 Nantwich/Oswestry (Home) November 14th Lost 7-5 & 7-6
The U14’s played with a number of Bolton girls against a combined Crewe & Nantwich and Oswestry team. The match was played to Tag rules and the Northwich girls found it hard to adapt to the tag playing style, with the visiting team having more experience. However Northwich sporting a number of new recruits eventually learnt to play effectively and competed well over the two halves played. Both matches were played with all the players enjoying competitive rugby, Northwich just loosing out narrowly in the second match.

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U14’s in RFUW Tournament at Northwich - Tournament winners!
On Sunday November 21st Northwich hosted an U14’s tournament organized by the RFUW for teams across the Cheshire and Lancashire area. 5 full squads competed with 8 clubs represented including local rivals Sandbach, Buxton, Vale of Lune in Lancashire, and a Barbarians team made up from clubs from Ormskirk, Ashton on Mersey and Old Alwinians. The tournament was played in a ‘round robin’ basis with every team playing each other to make sure everyone got plenty of match experience.
Everyone enjoyed a great afternoon’s rugby watched by a good crowd. In the end experience proved to be the key and Northwich won the overall tournament by tries scored, over Sandbach, a close second place. Darting runs around the scrum from Nieve Jones helped secure a number of tries for Northwich as well as set up a platform for Thea Breau, Trina Tulloch and Melissa Beesely to score. Northwich forwards proved themselves again in the loose, despite good forward play especially from Buxton and Sandbach. Good runs from Ellie Cornish and Jody Fraser also helped keep Northwich going forward with good pressure and tackling throughout from all the Northwich backs. 
Scores :
Northwich vs Vale, Won 4-0
Tries :Thea Breau 1, Melissa Beesley 1, Trudie 1, Nieve Jones 1
 
Northwich vs Buxton, Won 2-0
Tries : Nieve Jones 2
 
Northwich vs Sandbach, Draw 2-2
Tries : Nieve Jones 2
 
Northwich vs Barbarians, Won 3-0
Tries: Melissa Beesley 2, Nieve Jones 1

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U14’s vs Scunthorpe at Ashton on Mersey December 5th Won 56-17
The U14 combined with two girls from Ashton to play a Scunthorpe squad. Northwich played well to contain a strong half back combination and passed the ball wide to allow Northwich wings to score nine tries in all. Try of the match came from Trina Tulloch who appeared out of nowwhere from a ruck with the ball to run the full length of the pitch to score under the posts. At half time Northwich switched four of their players to even up proceedings and this let Scunthorpe score three tries but the revived Northwich squad wasn’t finished and scored three more tries

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U14’s vs Buxton (Home) January 23rd Won 57-5
Northwich U14 girls put their experience last week with Worcester behind them to score an emphatic win over Buxton in the first match of the New NortWest Merit League. Buxton unfortunately lost a player early on to a worrying neck injury but just couldn’t contain storming runs from many of the Northwich players. As holes formed in the Buxton defence Northwich players were able to power their way over the line or give clean ball to support players. Outstanding again was Melissa Beesley who not only saved two tries after long chases but scored four tries, one of which was a run the whole length of the pitch. Strong in contact were Thea Breau, Rochelle Christian and Jody Fraser and Amy Johnson who all scored their own tries.

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U14’s vs Ellesmere Port (Home) March 6th Won 55-0
Northwich got a shock when they faced newly formed Ellesmere Port on Sunday. Although they haven’t played as a team for some time, Northwich weren’t expecting fierce tackling and Ellesmere Port’s resolute defence which stopped Northwich’s usual free flowing play in the first half. But Northwich dug deeply and cleaned up their loose play to release backs, Melissa Beesley and Jody Fraser to run directly at the Ellesmere Port three quarter line. A typical blind side try in the first half from Nieve Jones opened the scores but Melissa Beesley was the highest try scorer with 7 tries after she weaved her way through the Ellesmere Port line. Jody Fraser also scored after a number of storming runs paid dividends and when Northwich started to spin the ball out wide, Trina Tulloch scored a further try and Rebekah Andrew in her first game also came close. Special mention to Rebekah & Alex who put in great displays in their first match in the black & gold shirts.

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U14’s vs Leicester Vipers (Home) March 27th Won 67-7
Leicester Vipers, a new squad to girls rugby were introduced to a game with NRUFC U14's girls team. The game played on half a pitch with a full squad by all resulted in a win for Northwich 67-7.
Tries: Nieve Jones- 2 Melissa Beesley - 4 Thea Breau- 2 Jodie Fraser- 1 Rebekah Andrew- 2 Conversions - 6
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U14’s vs Oswestry (Home) April 3th Won 56-7
Northwich Girls U14's were too strong for an inexperienced Oswestry team. Wings Rebekah Andrews and Charlotte Massey were able to find acres of space too run into after good forward play drew in the Oswstry team. Charlotte's strong runs were able shake off tackles to score four tries, her first for the club. Half backs Melissa Beesley and Nieve Jones managed as usual to control mid field play with Thea Breu and Ellie Cornish helping to secure ball in rucks and mauls.
Try scored by: Rebekah 1, Charlotte 3, Thea 1, Nieve 1, Melissa 4 & 3 conversions.

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U14’s at Ashton on Mersey Tournament May 15th (Ashton on Mersey) - Joint Winners
Northwich U14’s notched another tournament win with an unbeaten run against 6 other teams from across the North West. The tournament was run by the RFUW to encourage girls rugby across the region and featured teams from Ellesmere Port, Cheadle Hulme, Vale of Lune and Buxton. As usual Northwich’s defence was extremely secure and as soon as they had the ball Northwich girls had the pace and determination to run at any team. Even with the limited 15 minute matches, Northwich scored 28 tries. Well done girls. A great performance to end a great season, We’re all looking forward to next season.

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Score Table

Official Results

The tournament was drawn by Ellesmere Port and Northwich with each winning and drawing the same amount of games.