AS the rugby season is drawing to an end and only a handful of games left to play for the Crediton Girls, the second half of the season has been a mix of club fixtures with County games and weather to contend with.

Throughout November, December and January, the Under 15s and Under 18s played in the first rounds of the National Cup against other Devon teams, but despite winning at least two out of three games, it wasn’t enough to secure a place in the next round.

All three squads had a training session with retired Exeter Chief – Matt Jess is to help refine their rugby skills, courtesy of the girls’ fundraising efforts.

Throughout November and December the growing squads played club fixtures against teams from Kingsbridge, Barnstaple, Sidmouth and Bristol side Winscombe - with varying results from each age group – more wins than losses, the U15s finally getting a win over strong side Winscombe.

The squads are all growing in confidence and improving every week, with some strong tackling and aggressive running lines.

We finished up in December with a Christmas party at the club for all the girls, a great way to finish up for the Christmas break.

Following on from the Christmas break, the U13s and U15s did some fundraising with bag packing at Crediton’s Tesco store at Wellparks, thanks to Andrew Drayton for organising, Tesco for having us and all the customers for donating.

This money will help towards an end-of-season team get together for both squads. These days are important to help build a bond in the team and ultimately helps improve teamwork.

On a cold January Sunday the U15s and U13s had an indoor training session in the Waie Inn’s new sports hall – with a mixture of games of rugby netball, dodgeball and football.

February saw a large contingent of the U15s and U18s attend trials to play representative rugby at County level for Devon. They attended two development days (Bicton College and North Tawton RFC) to allow county selectors to see them train and play to aid selection.

Out of 115 U15s trialling, eight U15 Crediton girls were selected and from 85 U18s trialling six U18 Crediton girls were selected. This year has been the most well-attended trials yet, and selection was difficult.

U15s: Holly Keast, Holly Burrow, Holly Yeandle, Caitlyn Yeandle, Beth Daw, Chloe Brown, Eva Lewis and Alex Tamlin.

U18s: Grace Gillard, Sophie Robinson, Emily Blatchford, Lydia Sandys, Libby Baker and Evie Longworth.

The County festival style fixtures were played on three dates in February and March, on which they played three counties (Gloucester, Somerset and Cornwall) in two formats, 15-a-side and seven-a-side – six games each day in total.

The games were played in three locations, which saw parents and the girls travelling to Gloucester (Cheltenham Tigers), Somerset (Downside school, Radstock) and Devon (Tavistock RFC).

The U15s had a clean sweep in the 15-a-side game winning nine out of nine games and six out of nine wins in the seven-a-side, thus retaining the Tamar Cup after beating Cornwall for the 10th year in a row.

The U18s had mixed fortunes having lost games to Gloucester and Somerset with seven wins from nine in the 15-a-side and a loss to Somerset in the seven-a-side on the last weekend.

Outstanding contributions from the Crediton RFC Girls on all three days.

Whilst the older squads were busy with county trials, the U13s played a mini festival against girls from Paignton, Kingsbridge and Exeter Saracens and Cullompton at Crediton RFC – with the Crediton girls faring well in one game and narrow losses in two.

We invite a number of teams along to allow teams with smaller numbers to cluster and get game time. We are very fortunate at Crediton to have good squad numbers in each age group allowing us to field a full side most weeks.

Having lost momentum a little, due to county games and weather, we squeezed in a trip to Devonport Services with the U13s and U15s – with a win for the U15s and a narrow loss for the U13s against a clustered side of Devonport, Teignmouth and Paignton.

On March 9 more than 110 players and parents from the girls section took the trip to Sandy Park, Exeter to watch England ladies convincingly beat Italy in the Women’s Six Nations. This has proved inspirational to the players, a high quality game and a fun day out for all.

With the weather holding out in March just enough to allow Crediton to invite Exmouth/Withycombe, Sidmouth, Devonport and Kingsbridge back to Crediton RFC for an afternoon of rugby which saw nearly 150 girls playing in the three age groups. A great afternoon of rugby for all, with lots of game time.

On March 24, whilst some of the U18s and U15s were busy playing county games, the U13s and remaining U15s took a trip to Sidford to play against Sidmouth.

The U15s girls opted to play 12-a-side and keep together for the away match at Sidmouth. On a wide pitch and with half the team playing out of position the girls struggled to get to grips with a well-drilled Sidmouth team for much of the first half and by half-time found themselves 36-0 down.

However, they had started to come together during that half and during the break they bonded further and steeled their determination for the next 30 minutes. With more, and better communication, better running lines, passing, off loading and some courageous tackling they imposed themselves time and again to “win” a much more competitive second half 29-17 and walk away from the game with their heads held high. The final score being 53-29. 

Thanks to every girl that came along and gave everything they had. Your coaches are proud of the way that you came together and overcame a tricky situation through your own motivation, discipline and commitment when you could have just given in. Well played.

The U13s had a resounding win at Sidmouth under the charge of Coach Dan Wonnacott.?Crediton were dominant throughout the majority of the game with creating space and good support play.

Credit to all the girls, an excellent team effort saw a Crediton 60 - Sidmouth 10 win away from home.

Even though the scoreline was high Sidmouth made a brave effort of spending long periods of time defending on their try-line. Sidmouth did suffer some injuries and credit to the Crediton players who offered to play for Sidmouth.

Try scorers - Tilly Pulfer, Libby Lovell, and Margot Kitchen and Naomi Acton. Well done to all the team for a top effort.

We have a few fixtures left to play throughout April, including a full day of rugby at a festival in Minehead. Junior presentation night completes the season on May 4.

Training nights are on Thursday at 6pm – all girls aged 11-18 are welcome.

The girls’ game is very well-supported by the club and now that the Crediton RFC Ladies team is running and doing well, Crediton Rugby Club is proud to say that it can offer this great sport to girls of all ages and abilities from those that just want a bit of fun and fitness to County level and beyond.

The recent trip to see the England Ladies team has inspired our girls even further and the town should be proud that it has - in terms of numbers, support and results - a female representation that is the envy of many other clubs throughout Devon.

To be ready for next season we are in search of additional coaches to help with the nearly 100 girls playing. These coaches can commit as much or little time as they want.

Clubs like Crediton RFC cannot run without these volunteers. The club will help with coaching courses. If you are interested please email: [email protected] .

Suzy Keast