The friendly, soft tones of the Warlingham coach telling me his girls ‘hadn’t had much game time’, ‘just a season or so of experience’, did little to manage expectations as his strong athletic looking girls, all of a good stature, took to the field to warm up. Were we playing poker or rugby?

Yet again our girls might be giving a few pounds to the opposition but we had to hope some skills and experience would compensate. Certainly our warm-up was going well, with the backs looking undeniably slick going through a growing number of set moves.

With Warlingham only having 10 girls we started in a 10’s format until we all understood where we were.

A strong start by Warlingham, using their power around the contact area made a warm day feel warmer for a few minutes, until the Pulborough girls eventually got a hold of the ball, with a grip they would hold on to all day.

With the forwards giving enough clean ball out of the rucks, bossed by Captain Saunders at 9 once more, our backs were able to enjoy the full width of the pitch, and use their speed and fitness levels to our advantage.

It wasn’t all about width though - there was plenty of attacking the space and strong hand-offs through the centre too. All of which ended up with a score of 36 - 0 after just 15 minutes, with Lottie, Chloe and Lauren all taking a pair of tries, and Amy taking 2 admirable drop kick conversions.

Given the development match it was, we all agreed to rotate 2 of our more experienced girls through the Warlingham side each quarter, in an attempt to play a more even sided 12 a-side match.

This duly worked, with Lottie immediately energising the Waringham girls to make forward yards, backed up by Ellie as their 8, and before you knew it Warlingham were competing, taking two tries in the 2nd quarter to match our two, this time a pair for Emily showing her pace from fullback.

Injuries and fatigue started to slow up the momentum of the game in the third quarter, as we moved girls into different positions to develop experience in different areas, and we saw some loose handling at times. The rucking of Pulborough was looking dangerously complacent, with the Warlingham girls seemingly wanting it more - something to work on before we meet stiffer competition.

Nevertheless every time the ball made it to the backs Pulborough looked dangerous, and the third quarter was won by two unanswered quality tries. The first was a planned backs move, switching from inside centre off a scrum, to see Lottie take another score. The second saw Holly as fullback converting defence into attack and running almost the length of the pitch to score, ably supported by Lydia on her shoulder.

But the story wasn’t all about the pace and moves of the backs. Imogen at hooker (and captain for the 2nd half) showed her intensity and leadership throughout, and showed some great confidence in picking up the available ball through the ruck, something we had identified and worked on last week.

Ellie looked threatening at 8, always taking 15 yards each time she had the ball. Lois gave the crowd a lovely show and go when she was caught up in a backs move, showing great handling and some pace.

Tuppence and Jess looked like a formidable team, with Tuppence showing real composure and technique with some quality rucking. While Cannonball Carla was a real eye-catcher, showing huge commitment in the tackle, and a go forward attitude with the ball that underlines her nickname. We just need the support to keep up with her.

The final quarter saw all the available girls on the pitch, 3 of the Borough girls playing for Warlingham and a couple even having the audacity to score for them - Emily (for Warlingham) only narrowly escaping the chasing legs of Lauren, who has made a reputation for catching straggling try-scorers.

Nevertheless a couple more tries for Chloe and Lauren closed the scoring for Pulborough, underlined by a total of 6 drop-kick conversions for Amy and Macaroni.
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The Warlingham girls were game and played hard. They matched us around the scrum, beat us in the ruck, but had no answer for loose play on the day, and certainly no way of keeping up with the pace of Pulborough once we trusted ourselves to release it wide.

We were grateful for the development game time for all the girls, building knowledge and confidence in key areas. It is a good result for this team’s second outing, but much tougher tests await us and we need to work hard on competing at the ruck, and a pressing decisive defence if we are to foil the usual foe.

Team (tries): Jess, Imo, Tuppers, Lois, Rosie, Jas, Carla, Ellie, Amy (c), Lauren (3), Lottie (3), Chloe (3), Holly (1), Macaroni, Maddie, Lydia, Emily (2)