Sun 29 Sep 2019
A very wet Sunday meant it must be time for the Rubies to begin their season in earnest with a National Cup game against the very well-established Ampthill. Last season Ampthill had done rather well in the cup, the Rubies have never managed to win a National cup game. However, Ampthill have lost 9 of last years team as they have aged out and so were reliant on their u15s who had moved up, very much like the Rubies. This was also both teams first game and proved to be a cracking rugby match. With Captain Kacey Tuck choosing to play against the wind in the first half we were off.
Ampthill definitely had the size advantage, and this showed as they started pounding the Rubies try line from the kick off. The Ampthill centre was particularly dangerous making several breaks, she was very well supported by the Ampthill pack who were ferocious in attack. The Rubies defence was immense, Ampthill probably should have scored if they had looked up and passed to their unmarked wing and fullback but being rusty from their first game, they kept going the direct route. Time and time again the girls put their hand up to charge out of defence. Emma Banks (Banksy) put in 2 back to back huge hits to repel Ampthill. With Poppy ‘Nobody’ Elliott and Maya ‘the chiropractor’ Collinson in the back row the bigger girls of Ampthill could not get any momentum as they got girl and ball together. Sara Sloot from the famous Sloot Cambridge rugby family made for a very fine back row defence with her partners Nobody and Chiro.
Ampthill made it over the line on 3 occasions only to be held up by the Rubies. Finally, the pressure told and Ampthill forced the ball down for a score which was well converted for a 7-0 lead. This was a test as to whether the Rubies would trust in their fast handling style of play and they certainly did. Ted started to control things at no.10 and with Daisy’s hard running and Evie fast pick up the Rubies started to pressure the Ampthill defence. There were understandably a few handling errors in the wet. Another new face for the Rubies was Charlie in her first start and what an impact she made; her first contribution was to obliterate the dangerous running Ampthill winger. Her tackle count for the rest of the day was impressively high, almost all of them being very hard driving tackles, what a find!
Ampthill won a scrum on their own five meters line but as always Rebecca Clough (Cloughie) was hounding the 9 and 10, so much so the 10 mishandled and in flash the Billy Whizz of the side had scored. Cloughie had a superb game not only great hands but also her tackling was so impressive on the larger girls of Ampthill that the Ampthill coach said he was amazed at how good it was. With the conversion missed we had a 7-5 game. Cambridge had been holding their own in the scrums with Banksy, Caitlin and Cherry in the front row. With the introduction of Betty Cambridge won 3 scrums against the head. The scrum is one of the two bed rocks of the game with the lineout. The reintroduction of Caitlin has really picked the forwards up, her fast handling aggressive running style is very hard for opposition sides to match. The Rubies are very lucky to have players in the forwards like Abbie Southall, Cherry and Kacey who do a huge amount of the hard graft unselfishly.
Cambridge were really getting on top now and lightening breaks from Evie, Banksy and Iris meant we were threatening another score. It came after a breathless 3 minutes of unbroken play with almost both sides out on their feet before Livy scored. This made it 10-7.
Ampthill were certainly not done yet and again began attacking in hard running lines, its hard to describe how well the Rubies tackled again and again Poppy smashed girls backwards with Evie and Ted hitting low to stop them in their tracks. 3 times in the match girls had to make try saving tackles and they made them all Charlie, iris and Daisy made huge hits to stop the wingers from breaking free to score. With Cloughie off injured Maya moved to scrum half and the pressure told with Maya going over and converting to make it 17-7. Back Ampthill came in the dying minutes to score making it 12-17 and that was the game. A big thank you to Ampthill who were superb and played the game in such a great spirit. The game could have gone either way and I’m really looking forward to playing Ampthill again over the seasons.
For the Rubies, still plenty to work on but Cambridge should be proud of how heroic the defence was, not one single girl left an ounce of effort in the changing room it was all on the pitch. A first win in the National cup and one that will be remembered for a long time.
