Last year, one of our pupils was keen to set up a Girls’ Rugby team. Our coach explained that we needed enough girls from Years 11-13 to make it work, so the pupil went off and built interest amongst the seniors. When it came to signing up in September, our vision was supported by a new teacher who had just joined, the starting scrum half for Racing 92! This helped inspire the girls and we had enough interest to get the ball rolling.
Fast forward to last week when we took part in our first Girls’ Rugby tournament. We were a couple of players shy of the optimum squad number due to other sporting commitments so it was going to be a tough tournament, but the girls were up for the challenge.
Group stage results:
Zurich 1 27 – 0 BSP
Zurich 2 15 – 19 BSP
Combined team 15 – 7 BSP
BSN 20 – 0 BSP
3rd/4th play-off:
Combined team 5 – 26 BSP
Day 1 saw us take on Zurich 1, Zurich 2 and the combined team of ASP/BSB/TASIS. Our first game was going to be tough – we had come across Zurich at the Paris 7s and knew they were strong. Indeed, in our very first experience of playing on a full-sized pitch they exploited our weaknesses and looked like the team to beat in the tournament. In game 2 we knew we could do better against Zurich 2. Despite being down at half-time, this team was building a reputation as the come-back queens and indeed they fought hard to make it 3 tries apiece. We won due to our secret weapon – our kicking star in Year 12. She took two of the three conversions and converted them both, giving us a win of 4 points. An excellent victory – we were seeing the girls adapt well to the larger playing area. Moving into our last game of the day, we were flagging a little and not at our best. The combined team with a whopping 15 player squad caught us off-guard and took the victory 15-7. While disappointed, we knew we could play better and felt confident we’d be playing this team again, in the 3rd/4th play-off.
Day 2 and the girls were a little tired and sore but we needed to prepare ourselves to take on the home team, the BSN. Again, they had a full squad and were looking like the new tournament favourites. We made some tactical changes and knew that this as game wouldn’t alter our final standing we were under less pressure. The girls played well and despite losing 20-0, conceded fewer points than any other team playing the BSN. At the end of the group stage, we were 4th out of 5.
We now needed to prepare ourselves to steal back 3rd place! This game was by far our best of the tournament. From the first whistle we looked confident and ready to win. We supported each other in tackles, runs and breakdowns and displayed a level of determination that we’d lacked previously and it was working! We were 3 tries up at half-time so now we had to manage the game to ensure victory. The girls kept their heads and kept working, the final score was 4 tries to 1 with Isis converting 2/3 and one penalty try being awarded for a high tackle on Lina. We’d done it and the celebrations began! However, things got even better during the awards ceremony as the BSN tournament organiser announced we’d been bumped up to 2nd following Zurich’s disqualification for too many rule breaks. We played five games with only 9 in our squad, so 2 subs, which was incredibly hard work and the girls remained fierce throughout. They completely deserved to finish 2nd in the tournament and I hope their efforts will inspire other girls to pick up a rugby ball and join the team next season.
Thanks to our student for the initial idea and for captaining the team in its first season, our coach for sharing her expertise and being a role model for the girls, and to our Head of Sport for moving across to help the girls’ training and finishing the season as head coach.
It has been an absolute pleasure.
