Melbourne Minxes (U18) 20 v 14 North Hykeham (U18 )

Having lost earlier in the season to NH this was seen as a game that , if we could win, proved we had made real progress in the quality of our rugby . Part of our   tour to Northampton Saints  on Saturday , meant we hadn't had much sleep after the party the night before - not helped by the clocks going forward too!

Despite this , the team spirit was high and the sides clearly evenly matched .Straight from the kick off the game plan of keeping it tight in the forwards really started to work .With forwards running from deep and using our new " rumble ball" we managed a number of phases , winning the breakdown each time .Have pressurised the opposition we  threw the ball out wide for Amy Sheldrake to join the line from fullback and open the scoring with  one of her trademark try's  in the corner- no conversion . N.H. came back and played to  their strengths  of a strong midfield partnership who were very difficult to stop .Despite some excellent tackling particularly from Amy at full back we couldn't stop their class  East Midlands centre for scoring their first try  . We  then scored again off a great forwards move seeing Katherine Holdgate touching down for the Minxes .At half time we went in 10:7 the better .

The start of the second half saw the Minxes score again after an excellent try from Amy but then the balance of the game shifted  and NH looked dangerous as their backs ran hard and straight - some tackles were missed and again their centre scored another great individual try .At 15:14 we were in danger of being beaten by one very good player - but the friendship and team spirit that had been built up over the tour kicked in .We started to make our tackles , kick intelligently and move the ball up the field .The NH girls started to feel the pressure of the rush defence and made one or two mistakes . Twice we should have put the game beyond the reach of NH and twice we took the wrong option .However the quality of our mauling and fast ruck ball gave us both territory and possession and finally another  try of  great drive from a maul by Amy McDonald - put us 6 points ahead with 10 minutes to go . At this point we only had the keep the ball in our hands which we did mostly until a series of penalties gave NH the ball back and they almost scored to snatch the game but Bethan Boyse put a tackle in to stop the charge , we turned over the ball , kicked to touch and the whistle blew seeing Melbourne win a great game .

This squad have improved all season we have only lost one game since Christmas .The season's results show  10 games played 5 won and 5 lost which  is great platform to build on next year.