U16s Girls Staffordshire Cup Final 7th April 2024

Stafford hosted the Staffordshire u16 cup final between Stafford u16 Roses and a Leek & Longton team. These were the top two teams in the Staffordshire cup competition with Stafford having an unbeaten record and L&L having the next best. The weather conditions were quite poor with very strong winds and heavy showers so not the best for hosting a cup final.

Stafford kicked off and when L&L failed to gather the ball Sophia put pressure on the defender who missed the ball and Tori was on hand to dab it down. The second try came after 4 minutes when the ball was passed down the line and Tori went round the L&L defenders and scored In the corner. The third try came when L&L failed to get the ball 10m from the restart and from the resulting scrum No8 Eve picked from the base and got into the midfield and then from the ruck the ball was passed through the hands and Full back Georgia B was on the end of the line to finish a great team try off touching down under the posts, Connie adding the conversion. The fourth try came after 10 minutes when Izzy made a barn storming run from a ruck, handed off several L&L defenders and crashed over, Connie made the difficult conversion. The fifth try came after 12 minutes when Stafford caught the ball from the restart passed it through the hands to find utility forward Ava out wide who then outpaced the L&L defenders and scored under the posts, Connie adding the conversion. Stafford’s sixth try came after 14 minutes, again from the restart with Tori outpacing all the L&L defenders to score under the posts, Connie adding the conversion.

At this point the coaches from both sides decided that the sides should change ends so that L&L could play half of the first half with the conditions. This certainly made a difference to the rate of scoring and L&L were able to get some possession in the Stafford half. However, Tori scored her fourth try of the game after 21 minutes after shrugging off some weak L&L tackling and then outpacing the chasing defenders. L&L then had a spell of possession for the first time in the game as Stafford conceded a number of penalties at the breakdown and the L&L forwards where able to force their way over the Stafford try line for a score. As the half drew to a close L&L were starting to have a bit more possession and using the wind to their advantage put pressure on the Stafford line but they were held up. Kicking into the wind was very difficult so Eve B took a short goal line dropout and set off up the pitch. She was eventually stopped on the 10m line but Evie B was on had to gather the ball and sprint from half way to score under the posts, Connie added the difficult conversion into the wind. That was the last play of the half and the match as Stafford had racked up a score of 52 – 5 with a few minutes of the half remaining and the coaches and referee agreed to end the game.

The second half was played as a mixed game with Stafford lending L&L a number of players just so the girls could get some more game time. That half finished with both sides scoring 3 tries each and Stafford players scoring 5 of them (Evie B, Eve B, Tori 2 and Lilly). Connie and Evie converting the 3 Stafford tries.

As a contest it was a very one sided game not helped by the blustery conditions. Stafford played very well as a team scoring some lovely team tries involving both forwards and backs as well as some stand out individual tries. L&L could not live with strong tackling and rucking Stafford forwards nor the pace of the Stafford backs and considering the terrible conditions the ball handling from Stafford was exceptional. So Stafford u16 Roses are now County Cup Champions and remain undefeated in the competition.

Very well played girls.
Mark