Cambridgeshire Women’s development team play Essex in a friendly

Last night we took a Cambridgeshire Women’s development team to Harlow rugby club, to play Essex in a friendly as part of their preparation for their county championship games in May.

Only three of our squad had played for the county before and many had played most of the season in Inner Warrior sides across the county. When we took the fixture, we knew we wouldn’t be able to pick any of the ladies selected for the Eastern Counties squad and we knew that Cambridge and Shelford had both had tough, but successful seasons, so this really gave others an opportunity to experience the next level. Players from Haverhill & District RFC Women, St.Ives RUFC, Ely Tigers Ladies, March Bears Rugby Club, Shelford Rugby Club Women’s Team and Anglia Ruskin University all performed well and did their clubs proud.

We didn’t travel expecting to win, against what we knew would be a strong and physical Essex side, but we had two training sessions in preparation, and set out to have fun, learn, develop and improve.

The scores across the 3 ‘halfs’ immediately show improvement (29/0, 24/0, 21/5) but more importantly, at the end everyone was smiling, many had experienced rugby at a level they perhaps didn’t expect to play at and every one of them wanted to play again.

Same time next year Essex Rugby?

We were ‘professional’ in our appearance, behaviours, and processes as you would expect from a representative side, and Essex and Harlow rugby club were fabulous hosts, making us feel very welcome.

Thanks also to the London referees society for the provision of an excellent, young new ref with loads of potential.

All in all, a great evening.