Following an excellent winning home start to the league campaign a couple of weeks ago, against the Phoenix cluster team, this weekend saw the Bury Vixens U16 Girls travel away to a well-established Norwich Wildcats side for a lunch time friendly fixture.
On a mild afternoon, in good playing conditions, the girls kicked off with a full team of 15 players.
The early stages of the match were keenly contested with some good passages of play for both sides, with no scores - until a scrum in Bury’s 22 resulted in the first try of the match to Wildcats, on 10 minutes.
For the next 3 minutes, Bury were in the ascendency, forcing a scrum on Wildcat’s 22, however a turn-over resulted in a breakaway for Wildcats, with Harriet producing a strong try-saving tackle.
The home side then applied steady pressure and, despite some resolute collective defending by the Bury girls including Alice and Izzy working particularly hard, Wildcats forced over the second try of the match on 14 minutes.
The next passage of play saw Wildcats maintain the majority of possession with powerful tackling being made by Ilana and Connie forcing a turnover to the Vixens. This resulted in Roo threatening to break through the Wildcat’s defence on 16 minutes, with the home side having to work hard to prevent Bury’s first score.
The Vixens followed this up with a good spell of passing with Sophie Rankin and Sophie Arnott showing good handling, but with no reward, as Wildcats started to impose themselves on the match, scoring another try on 18 minutes which was converted.
From the following kick off Bury showed glimpses of quality rugby including positive runs by Frances, working well with Sophie Amis to move the team forwards in possession. Violet and Roo additionally combined well producing a fine drive shortly afterwards that nearly broke through the Wildcat’s defence.
As the half moved on, however, the home side proved quicker into the breakdowns, regaining and retaining possession well and the first half closed shortly after the home side had scored their 4th and 5th tries, with the final try being well converted from a wide angle.
The second half saw the Vixens start brightly maintaining good ball possession with Lexie showing good skills enabling Sophie Dobson and Connie to demonstrate their ability to drive forwards gaining territory for Bury.
Another good spell saw Esme nearly break though on the flank to open the Vixen’s account, but Wildcats steadied the ship and forced another try from a turnover 6 minutes into the second half.
Sophie Arnott produced a powerful run shortly after the restart, pushing the Vixens into the Wildcat’s 22, but again the home side resisted well and, following another turnover after 14 minutes of the second half, scored their 7th try under the posts which was duly converted.
Darcey and Ilana combined well on 56 minutes to again show what the Vixens can produce, with some quick passing play that nearly broke through the Wildcat’s defence. Bury continued to dig deep, with all players maintaining great perseverance with Connie and Harriet notably continuing to produce some fine tackles as the game went deeper.
On 59 minutes, Wildcats pounced on a loose ball to secure another try, taking the score to 46-0. This was followed soon after on the 72nd minute by a fine final passing try showing why the home side are such formidable opponents, making the final score 51-0.