Written by: Chang Zhe Ming
Edited by: Cheng Kai Wen
Photos by: Eusoff Works
Following the boys’ dominance the day before, our girls sought to make a similar mark on the first day of their season. The team comprised experienced players like Claudia, and promising freshies like Small Claudia.
The touch rugby IHGs this year are held in the carnival format, meaning all the games will be held across two Saturdays, with match after match from morning till evening. On the first day of the carnival, we faced Raffles Hall, King Edward VII Hall and Kent Ridge Hall
EH vs RH (9 - 0)
We kicked off the day against RH. Both Claudias, Jeyin, Anna, Yiyin and Selina featured in the starting lineup. They hit the ground running, moving the ball around with pace before Claudia gave us the quick lead with a smooth dive. After some good defence, we make some quick substitutions and Theng finds Clae on the left wing for our second point in.
Clae's strategic and cute dive to the side to just avoid getting touched by the defender.
Following that hot start, Selina and Yiyin both got on the scoresheet before Claudia took over and scored two more with nifty drives. We led 7-0 at the half.
We continued to put the pressure on in the second half, with Selina and Anna making good moves down the right wing but having the touchdown overruled. Meanwhile, RH struggled to make things happen as we defended aggressively. We finally got our first points of the half when Theng drives and finds Small Claudia wide open for the try. LYLC Claudia then closed the game in style when she forced the fumble and drove all the way through to make it 9-0 to Eusoff.
EH vs KE7 (12 - 0)
The girls looked to build upon their impressive win after taking a half hour break to talk through areas for improvement with coach Kenny. We were off to another good start as Selina found Queenie free on the left wing to make it 1-0. After some good defence, Hui Lin received the ball and drove half the field to score the touchdown, outrunning the entire defence (with some help from Theng, who accidentally tripped one of the defenders…).
One of many Huilin's threatening dives of the day!
However, our momentum started to let up after we lost the ball a few times while trying to make substitutions. Slowing down the play, Theng then dumps it off to Yiyin, who finds Kiwi and she makes a good pass to Shannon on the right wing for the try. Ow and Clae each score a point on the left wing before Yiyin makes it 7 at the break again.
This time, we managed to keep the scoring going right off the start of the second half as Hui Lin fakes a pass and dives the other way for the touchdown. It continued to be a one-sided affair for the rest of the half, as the girls scored from left, right and centre. A convincing 12-0 win for us.
EH vs KR (4 - 2)
The last time we faced KR in IHG was in the finals last year, where the girls unfortunately lost in a dropoff. This time round, KR, who were consecutive champions for many years, again happens to be one of the favourites to win it all, so the girls really had to bring their A game.
And so they did, clamping the KR offence to force the fumble, and the crowd on the sidelines went crazy. We made a few moves of our own before Kiwi and Queenie stopped the KR attack down the right. The ball found its way to Elis, who dodges 2 defenders with some excellent body control, and casually jogs to the try zone to open the scoring.
The girls with their first score and the very supportive sideline in the background.
We continued to stay aggressive on defence, getting quick touches in before KR could react. Claudia then doubled our lead as she dove through a gap between two defenders. Good action on the right wing then saw Small Claudia have a touchdown overruled before getting the point after running the same play again.
Following a strong first half, we struggled to increase our lead in the second as KR started to defend with more intensity. They then managed to pull back a point on the last touch to make it 3-1. It gets worse as Jeyin is forced to sit out after a few successive infringements, and KR took full advantage to close the gap to one.
With the crowd cheering them on, our girls dug deep to hang on for the last two minutes, ultimately forcing a fumble with a few seconds left. With the ball in Claudia’s hands and the horn already sounded, the crowd urged her to take a touch to end the game, but she put her head down and drove for the touchdown. Ice. Cold. A hard fought 4-2 win.
All smiles for the final touchdown to seal the deal from the top scorer of the day!
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