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The Slingbacks started strongly, had most of the early play. They were the more cohesive team but were eventually undone by some fine individual breaks where opponents sprinted away.

Some shrewd kicking from fly-half Alice Lovett set up a position for winger Sam Emery to go over for the Slingbacks. At that stage Streatham had hardly seen the ball, but when they managed to get it into the hands of their fast and feisty right-winger, she just streaked through potential tacklers to score a try that was converted for a 7-5 lead to the visitors.


Anja Grant gives a pass

Park seized back the initiative when the excellent Chrissie Ovendon received the ball out wide on halfway and simply sprinted round the opposition defence to touch down close to the posts. Centre Shanice Williams converted for 12-7 to the Slingbacks.

The Park girls went back on the attack and got close to the Streatham line but were undone by conceding a string of penalties, combined with not retreating quickly enough, which saw their opponents advance up the field, far enough to put their winger in with another chance, which she took with both hands to equalize at 12-12.

There was still no reason for Park to be sending up distress flares, but when the same player again got away to score a first half hat-trick under the posts there was clearly a problem to solve. The conversion brought the score to 19-12.

Park came back before the interval with a super try out wide through full-back Anja Grant, who has progressed very quickly from rookie to being as good a full-back as any at this level.

But at 19-17 that was as good as it got for Park. They still played some good rugby, and caused the visiting defence some trouble but were undone by individual breaks from a lock and the number 8.

There were a lot of positives to take from the match, however. The scrum held up, though outweighed, and the forwards made some hard yards, the two Hannahs at lock really getting stuck in. The back row showed a lot of commitment to winning the ball. In terms of teamwork the Slingbacks were the better combination. The biggest problem was sheer inexperience in terms of speed of formation of the defensive line that gave fast opponents too much time to build up momentum before the first tackle.

There are a lot of very promising young and inexperienced players being developed. It is invidious to single out individuals, but recent recruit Emma on the right wing looks an absolute natural at the sport, and her height and athleticism jumping at the lineout is a major bonus.

Park: Anja G; Emma A, Chris O, Shanice W, Sam E; Alice L; Maria C; Elice R, Becca B, Helen P; Hannah B, Hannah M; Amanda B, Dani W, Katie P
Replacemets: Cat, Billie, Linn, Zara, Sarah, Marta, Ellie
Park scorers: Sam E (T), Chris O (T), Anja G (T), Shanice W (C)


Charlie Addiman

February 27, 2018