Sidmouth Under-15 girls were in action at Bideford where they took on a combined Bideford and South Molton side.

In a powerful start, Sidmouth struck with an early try, but the home side hit back, showing excellent rugby skills that tested the Sidmouth defence with relentless attacks that the Sidmouth girls countered with impressive tackles.

Sidmouth contested the ball with particularly well-executed rucking that saw them gain plenty of ball with Cleo Turley in the thick of the ‘ball winning’ action.

The opponents fought hard and were able to slip through our net on occasion, which Sidmouth would then counter even stronger and more determined, which was often rewarded.

In the forwards were the front row of Lauren Provis, Annabel Emmott, Lily Baker, Annabelle Bird, Lucy Moore, Holly Hales and Abbie French, who were particularly impressive in their ability to control the game, stringing together phases of forward attacks, putting the opponents under enormous pressure, creating space in their defensive line to release our backs to finish the job.

In the backs was an impressive combination of Lucy Tanner, Daisy Grove and Minty May, recycling the ball, making the strategic calls to engage our inside wing Harriet Austen-Rigby and centres Amber Coombes and Esme Bagwell and fullback Hatty Tremlett to cause chaos to the opponents’ back line and ultimately release outside wing Bella Breen, whose acceleration and top speed proved too much for the opponents.

Both teams played a very high standard of rugby and the contest was end-to-end throughout with Sidmouth ultimately taking the honours with the final score being 19-17.

Sidmouth RFC are always delighted to welcome new players.

The club has girls playing already from the age of seven and there’s mixed rugby available up to the age of 12, after which there are then full girls’ teams for under 13s, under 15s and under 18s.