Sun Shines on Festival of Golden Tries

This year, Essex again had many of their girls away representing the East Region at Lichfield RFC at the RFUW Regional Youth Festival. 650 girls descended upon the West Midlands club and enjoyed two days of competitive rugby and the glorious Spring sunshine inspired the players to lift their game, and the spectators were treated to a feast of high quality rugby.

Saturday saw the East U15's put up a terrific display to face Cardiff Blues in the Cup Final, despite going 10-0 down the East girls fought back to make it 10-10 before conceding a try in the dying moments which handed the cup to Cardiff. Parents and spectators alike could not fail to be impressed with the skills that were on show on the day, and non more so than in the 31-0 win over South West North in the semi final which saw East run in some fantastic tries following some sublime passing across the pitch to stretch their opponents. All the girls should be proud of themselves for the way they raised the game and were unfortunate to come away as only runners up. However the East Region U15's Official ranking for 2008/9 as the Best Team in England.

On the Sunday the East U18's were in action and spured on by the U15's achievements the day before set out in what was a very tough group stage with a well earned 7-0 win against the top Welsh Region the Ospreys. The 2nd pool game saw the girls come up against neighbours South East in what was another very close game that East won 7-0.
The 2 victories put the girls through to the cup semi final against a well drilled South West South team. Following some excellent play from the whole team they ran out winners by 19 points to 5 to set up a cup final clash with one of the favourites the South Region.

A pulsating final saw the girls come away with a 15-3 win to take the trophy back to the region for the first time since 2004

The girls from all 3 counties within the region played their part in ensuring the trophy came home with them.

Scores
East 7 Ospreys 0
East 7 South East 0

Semi Final
East 19 South West South 5

Final
East 15 South 3

At U15 level we were represented by
Abbie Cook (Rochford)
Maddy Lockwood (Rochford)
Yasmin Pemberton (Rochford)
Lucie Wood (Rochford)
Olivia Stembridge (Captain) (Romford)
Layla Pickering (Rochford)
Hannah McCready (Rochford)

U18's representing East were
Rachel French (Rochford)
India Harvey (Basildon)
Frances Hughes (Basildon)
Frank Jordan (Basildon)
Fi Jordan (Basildon)
Jen Mugglestone (Romford)
Emily Scott (Basildon)
Sam Smith (Rochford)
Jemma Sommers (Basildon)
Jessica Wilkins (Rochford)