East London Ladies win their first home game.

After the snow claimed the game against Ayelsford and Millwall cried off an hour and a half before kick off, East London Ladies finally managed to get their first game in front of home fans under their belt.

They day started with a set back as 2nd row, Gill Tharlow aggravated an old injury meaning she couldn’t play, but with a 22 strong squad, Stephanie Neville stepped in without fault.

East London had set themselves the aim of making their home ground a fortress and the ladies started strongly hitting rucks and tackles like their lives depended on it, Idiil Starh, playing her first season of rugby, in particular stood out.

It wasn’t long before the pressure and possession was turned into points and winger ‘Fast Alice’ Middleton showed her pace down the wing to score untouched under the posts, Sam Leetch converting.

From the restart East London kept the pressure up and a scorching run through the middle from quick ruck ball saw skipper Abby Crawford dot down between the sticks with Sam converting again – 14-0

But Chelmsford aren’t top of South East South 2 for nothing and as the affects of the heat began to tell on the home side the visitors managed to create an overlap out wide to score an unconverted try.

From the restart Chelmsford kept up the pressure and missed tackles from East London allowed them to score under the posts.

But East London showed their character and that they wouldn’t be pushed over by striking straight back through winger Alice, who was only playing her second game of rugby, going over in the corner. Sam narrowly missing a very difficult kick. 19-12 at half time.

Chelmsford came out fighting in the second half and scored a converted try to level the game 19 a piece.

Yet again though, the East Londoners showed their determination not to be beaten on their home patch and woman of the match Alice finished off her hat-trick by outpacing the defence to score out wide.

But as the game had been up to now, Chelmsford came back into it by scoring on the wing to level matters once again setting up a nail biting finish.

The East London Ladies were determined not to disappoint their home fans and as they started to dominate at scrum and ruck time the forwards notched one up through a fine pick and drive finish from Suz Higgs. 29-24

East London aimed to finish with a flurry but a mistake out wide in the Chelmsford 22 allowed the visiting winger what appeared to be a free run down the line and under the posts as she outpaced her opposite number Laura and the quick Abby at full back, but Alice not happy with her try scoring heroics managed to cover the distance from the opposite wing to put in a superb match winning tackle, shoving the Chelmsford winger into touch.

This led to a period of sustained pressure from the visitors but a knock on allowed East London to clear from the scrum to seal a historic first home victory.

1. Yvette Burton, 2. Sue Hughes, 3. Sam Leetch, 4. Stephanie Neville, 5. Becky Warren, 6. Jo Emslie, 7. Tjasa Lazic, 8. Kany Afilaka, 9. Aoife Farrell, 10. Mal Wanduragala, 11. Alice Middleton, 12. Abby Crawford, 13. Idiil Starh, 14. Victoria Perkins, 15. Abby Mortimer.

Suz Higgs, Jess Bain, Laura Middleton, Sahar Saleh, Rokayah Abdulmajed, Liz Fairholme, Ella Mitchell.

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