SMUS FRANCE/ITALY RUGBY TOUR 2024
3/30/2024 0 Comments Final Girls' GameMatch report by Mr. Farish: The sun is setting as we take the field at Frascati Rugby Club. The stadium and club house are impressive though the field itself, freshly lined, is more mud than grass, with several scrum sized puddles. Undeterred the coaches have led a warm up in our fresh white tour jerseys. This is going to be fun! The Roman girls side number only 8 as gametime arrives. Traffic has held a few up, so we extend our warm up with a game of touch. Finally the Italian side announces they are ready to play with 14 girls present. In the spirit of good play, we offer to provide a player to give them 15 and make it a proper game. Several of the players volunteer and Lily F., our youngest is one of them, and Sierra in the second half. Great courage by both! Former SMUS Grade 10 boarding student, Johanna Sammet, joined us for the final game and donned the SMUS whites for one final game. Having been introduced to the sport of rugby while living on campus, she has gone on to play for her club team in Germany and was a welcomed addition to the roster. So awesome to see the sport growing and to have the SMUS name carried around the world. Harper M kicks to start the game. Immediately it becomes apparent that though the mud is a factor, they will not shy away from it! Recent rains have made the field slick and the ball is caked. Our backline plays with great hands, and finds success on the wing. Within the first minute, the call is scrum white for a Frascati knock-on. The ref decides to relocate the mark away from a large puddle on the 22. It’s SMUS ball through the hands of scrum half Moe O, Harper M, Alex M, Katie M, and finally Ruki M who streaks up the right sideline at pace, almost away but for a great tackle by the Frascati fullback who takes the speedster by surprise fully into touch. This will happen again before she finds her first try. Kick off video SMUS girls score first, Ruki in the corner. It’s her third trip down the wing, twice thwarted by strong tackling of the French side, but the speedster is finally successful midway through the half. Frascati answer within minutes with a penalty inside our 22, tap and go to their # 3, a big powerful unit and strong runner, 5-5. he second half starts with a good kick reception by the SMUS girls but some back and forth play. Some valiant defence on the part of SMUS, particularly Taylor M taking down the big French prop, however, a line break gives the Frascati forwards an upper hand, and they dot it down for a second try, 10-5. The Italians seem emboldened by their second try, though the SMUS girls are brava on defence, and regain possession and territory through some determined play. Harper May with a try, and kicking her own conversion, 10-12 SMUS leading. Second try video and the conversion video The SMUS forward pack did a fine job with their scrummaging and rucking throughout. Once again the reffing was sometimes suspect, and the girls had to work hard to retain the ball, which was slick with mud. Some fine running off the kick, Molly G, then Harper M who gets rocked by the Frascati prop, and slow to get up. The Italians are penalized and the SMUS captain is slow to get up, but rallies. SMUS continues to work hard but slowly succumb to a Italian onslaught, and the next try comes shortly after, 15-12 for the home side of Frascati. Watch the big hit here Harper shook it off and was up and running within a minute, leading her team in the direction of the Frascati line several times. In spite of more determined and physical play the SMUS girls are not able to regain the lead and the game ends with the home side, Frascati, in the lead 15-12 when the final whistle blows. A valiant effort by the SMUS girls and a game that few of them will ever forget. Honourable mention to Lily F and Sierra J, both of whom agreed to play for the other side when they were short a player. Vivat! Post game saw the exchange of balls, some delicious pasta and lots of new friendships. Thank you to Frescati for hosting and congratulations to all of the girls who played a LOT of rugby over the last two weeks. Special mention to Katie M, Sammie R., and Sasha C. who played every minute of every game on tour!
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