Owls Finish Off The Season

The game started with the home side playing with a strong wind behind them and had The Owls pinned inside their own half for much of the first 40 minutes.

Romford opened the scoring from a scrum inside the Harwich 22m line and when the ball broke free they mauled the ball over the try line for a 5-0 lead after the conversion attempt missed.

The Owls, who travelled to the game with only 13 players, were not deterred by this and when second row Sian Smith broke the Romford defensive line to sprint clear from inside her own half to be tackled just short of the try line, quick recycled ball found Becki Hare slicing through the defence to score and level the game at 5-5 after a missed conversion.
Romford scored shortly before half time when The Owls gave away a penalty 5m out and the quick tap and go caught the Harwich defence out for the try, again the conversion missed.

After half time Romford started to tire The Owls out due to the amount of ground they had to cover defensively being two players down.
Sam Willmott, Sophia Tricker, in her last game as captain, Mathilda Vivares Sian Smith, Genevieve Croll and Emma Simons tackled like demons all day.

Becki Hare ran The Owls efficiently from fly half moving the ball and linking well with Holly Cuozzo from scrum half.
Despite some heroics from all the team and some quite outstanding performances resulting in some of the best rugby played by The Owls this year Romford crossed the try line 4 more times for a final score 32-5.

A final word of praise for Sian Smith, Sam Willmott and Owls coach Mimi Montgomery who have all made the Eastern Counties ladies squad for the upcoming Gill Burns trophy series this spring.

Report by Tim Flatt