St. Mary's Crucified
ALTHOUGH ST MARY'S had stolen our gnome on our last meeting, it was hard to be excited about facing this team again. Their continuous foul play throughout the match reminded us why we hadn't been looking forward to it. The Blues, however, did well to rise above this behaviour and were the only side playing rugby. Our pack looked more organised with much more effective rucking than last week. The scrums, even when playing with only 7 forwards due to Miffi Taylor's ankle injury, were excellent. The backs were frustrated by an imposing St. Mary's back line and failed to score the points to reflect our domination of the match. The final score was 15-0.
One try was scored by Becky Young, from a line-out and two by Beth Temple, making a welcome return from injury. Sarah Fountain was UBS Warburg player of the match, having played very well on her 2nd row debut. Whilst she may not have enjoyed the experience it is important that our props appreciate what a lock has to go through...
The Panthers, Oxford's 2nd team had a busy week, they not only had the usual BUSA match on Wednesday against Northhampton, but also had to play Leicester DMU on Sunday (postponed from the previous week).
The Northhampton match narrowly avoided descending into farce. Kick off was delayed over an hour, as there was no sign of the opposition. When they did arrive in Oxford they turned up at the wrong pitch. By the time they met us in Parks, one Oxford player actually had to leave to go to attend a tute!
The reduced game of tweny minutes each way that was finally played was frustrating. Over 80 minutes, the Panthers' superior fitness would almost certainly have won them the game. As it was, Northhampton won by one try.
In defence the Panthers backs put in some incredible tackles: Madeline Squire, Jenni Eatough and Sarah Tringham all took out the oppostion with gusto.
On Sunday, the frustrated potential of the Northampton match was realised against Leicester: Panthers winning 10-5.
They dominated the game from start to finish, not letting a try get past their solid defensive play. Panthers coach Duncan Gray could not choose between Melanie Orchard and Miranda Kaufmann as his player of the match.
With form like this, the Panthers should have no trouble in 7th week when they take on the Cambridge Tigers in the 2nd team Varsity showdown.
13th Feb 2003