Out with the Old, in with the New!

Chobham 0 Welwyn-Saints 26

At the end of last season, Welwyn Warriors looked back on a season that had seen them finish as runners up in the National Cup & the Surrey league. They also said goodbye to 7 of their squad who left to play senior rubgy. Having struggled for numbers all last season, Warriors approached Old Albanians with an offer to enter a combined team for this season and yesterday, Welwyn-Saints made their debut at Chobham!

With last minute withdrawals leaving Welwyn-Saints with only 14 players against the Chobham 15, the game kicked off in driving drizzle. The visitors fielded 3 Saints, Vicky Moxom, Mica Gooding & Laura Haddon, as well as former Warriors U15s, Georgia Peedle, Olivia Payne, Emma Wilson & Sam Voyle, the first time the girls had played together! Very quickly Gooding & Peedle put in big hits to show they were not overawed by their new environment!

Breaking from defence, some great interpassing across the back line set up Geri Thomas for the first try. Fresh back from her England U20 trial, Thomas looked more confident then she has ever done and made break after break. skipper Hannah Gallagher converted 0-7 to Saints. More pressure from the visitors saw a try held up but from the resulting scrum, Hannah Marques peeled away from the scrum, broke 2 tackles to make the score 0-12. A great solo run from Gallagher saw her score under the posts and convert to make it 0-19 at half time.

Emma Wilson seemed to relish her new role as scrum half and Olivia Payne made her presence felt in the back row. Meanwhile up front Ema Burgess and Milly Fuggles were tiring the Chobham defence with their forward charges. Vicky Moxom made some crucial tackles on the wing while Laura Haddon debuting at hooker was a formidable figure down the centre. The rain got heavier and handling errors increased but a great interchange through the middle saw Sam Voyle score under the posts and Georgie Peedle convert to make the score 0-26. Alex Robertson & Vice-Capt Megan Williams always looked threatening and it was a particularly good effort from them as alongside, Geri Thomas, the 3 have been trialling for England U20 places and all 3 are through to the next stage of the trials, congratulations to them!

Coach Chris Gallagher was delighted. 'All the new girls whether our former U15s or the O.A.s girls played really well. New team mates, new positions, they all got stuck in. Plenty of potential and plenty of enthusiaism!'. Manager Dave Marques was also delighted but pointed out the next match is a visit to Solent Sirens, one of the form teams of last season. 'I think we'll need to see the results from 3 or 4 rounds of matches before we look at predicting league winners. Chobham made us work very hard today, Solent, Dorking, Wimborne & Worthing will all be tough sides to beat and we don't know much about the new sides so we don't take anything for granted but the portants look good'!