Sweden Ladies 14 London Select 32

Two excellent ladies sides braved a bitterly cold day and a series of snow showers to produce an excellent game of rugby on Saturday. The game had been arranged to allow the Swedish national side some playing experiences part of their build up to the Women’s European Cup in May. At home they can only play on synthetic surfaces in the winter months. The opposition side had been raised by the very strong Richmond Ladies.  To allow the coaches to have good opportunities to talk to their players and to make frequent player and positional changes the game was played in three sessions.

The opening session saw the London side dominate the possession largely due to their heavier and well drilled pack. The Sweden Ladies struggled partly perhaps because it was their first game on a conventional surface since October.  They conceded two early tries to driving mauls and then came under further pressure as

London started to move the ball wide. Despite some good tackling two additional tries, one converted came from the backs. Towards the end of the session the Scandinavian players began to adjust to the conditions and only conceded one more try towards the end of the session.

Both teams made some adjustments at the interval and the second session showed a very different pattern. The Swedish pack were able to hold their own in the set pieces and in broken play; for the first time their backs had some good possession to work with.  A good break by their backs saw them run in a good try close to the posts and slot the conversion. Ten minutes later they produced the try of the match when their number 7 made a good break and passed wide to the winger who committed two defenders before passing inside to set up the score. A good conversion given the swirling wind took the score to 32 – 14. For the remainder of the session both sides worked hard to play good rugby despite two bitterly cold snow showers.

The final session was closely contested but no further score resulted and at the end the players were happy to retreat to the warmth of the clubhouse.  Andy Tither the Development Officer for Swedish Ladies Rugby thanked Harlow for providing facilities and Richmond for organizing the opposition side. He presented ties and team shields and Harlow President Chris Locke present Harlow club ties to the visitors. After a much needed hot refreshments the visitors made the short journey to Harlow Town Station to catch the Stansted Express to link up with their late afternoon flight home.

Perhaps one of the good things about women’s rugby is the keenness of the existing players to see the game expand. Typical of this was the willingness of the Richmond club to pull together a talented side who worked very hard to help get some much needed match practice before the European Championships. For the hundred or so Harlow members and local rugby fans who braved the cold both sides produced an exciting game played in the true spirit of the sport. 

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