![]()
Hertfordshire U18s girls concluded their matches for this season with an overwhelming 67-0 victory against Essex. The match, held at Hitchin RFC, was actually stopped a third of the way through the second half due to a potentially serious injury to one of the Essex players, so the winning margin could have been much higher still. Luckily it turned out to be only a minor shoulder injury.
Since Essex had won their previous match against Sussex, Herts were hopeful of a more even match than the one earlier in the month against Eastern Counties. Unfortunately, Essex were only able to muster 13 players, so Herts loaned Essex two of their players in order to get a 15-aside match.
The Herts forwards were commanding at the breakdown and in the scrum. On several occasions they turned over the ball which allowed the backs to make inroads. By half time Herts had scored nine tries, three of which had come from the forwards who had found themselves with room. Zoe Harrison was on form with the boot and added six conversions to take the score to 55 – 0 at half time.
With several changes at half time, to give all the Herts girls some game time, the try rate slowed a little in the second half. Nevertheless Herts scored two further tries before the match was stopped after 14 minutes of play.
Fittingly the top scorers, with a hat-trick each, were fullback Sydney Gregson and prop Vicci Cogger. They were playing their final representative match for Herts U18s, along with Catrin Bowser, who also scored, and scrumhalf Bryony Pomfret. Katy Walker contributed two tries, Ellena Perry scored one and Zoe Harrison added one as well as her six conversions.
After the match the girls rounded off what is a short county season with some appropriate speeches at the dinner. Head coach John Harrison paid tribute to the squad who had played saying, “You can be very, very proud of everything you have achieved…you have been a pleasure to coach and fully deserve your success”.
Team: Harriet Austin, Sara Blissett, Catrin Bowser, Vicci Cogger, Hayley Everett, Tian Figg, Sydney Gregson, Zoe Harrison, Florence Jones, Rosie Kay, Aine McMahon, Pat Metcalfe-Jones, Sandra-Jo Palfrey, Ellena Perry, Bryony Pomfret, Helen Roberts, Izzie Sloan, Megan Smith, Jeanine Stephenson, Beth Summerfield, Kate Summerfield, Katy Walker
