Ladies win their first ever game

East London travelled to Thames short a number of players due to injury, uni work and a variety of other reasons leaving them with the bare 15 to start their playing careers.

The opposition, Thames Toucanettes, had only lost one game all season so the expectation would be they would be tough opposition for the clubs newest team. It was a scrappy start with a handful of errors from ELL, but the East Enders had the upper hand and spent most of the opening exchange in the opposition half.

After an injury enforced break ELL started to gel and get their game together and they really took it to Thames and only for a couple of errors would have gone ahead at half time.

The second half started with Thames showing their experience and pressurising ELL but the away side kept their impressive defence up. An unfortunate injury to ELL 12, Maria, led to her being carried off the pitch and the visitors now had to finish the match with one less player on the park.

This spurred on Thames who were camped on ELL’s try line and after a dozen phases of superb defence, the line was finally broken when Sarah took a blow to the face leaving a gap for Thames to sneak through. 5-0.
With only minutes left on the clock ELL’s girls were determined to get their first game down as a win and after some good defence, full back Abby made an amazing incisive run from the half way line to score under the posts. Sam added the conversion making it 5-7.

There was just enough time for one last bit of nerves for the East London travellers as former Thames girl, Amanda, took the kick off on last play and managed to throw the ball forward earning her the dick of the day award.

The ref blew the final whistle and ELL started life with a win.
The victory was made all the more impressive by the fact so many players were missing, Including skipper Abby Crawford, and two of the girls started barely able to walk but managed to play the whole game.
Next up is Aylesford at home on the 12th of Feb where everyone at the club who can is asked to come down and support the ladies in their first home game

1. Samantha Leetch, 2. Livy Lewis, 3. Ella Mitchell, 4. Mia Stacey, 5. Sarah Barber, 6. Kaya Abdulmajed, 7. Gill Thurlow, 8. Kany Afilaka, 9. Aoife Farrell, 10. Amanda Farrow, 11. Anna Sereni, 12. Maria Nilsson, 13. Sophie Boddy, 14. Damini Bhudia, 15. Abby Mortimer
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