U15s win at Crawley

The squad consisted of:
1, Claire Johnston, Diss,
2, Chloe Bissell, Swaffham,
3, Kelsey Davis, Swaffham,
4, Emily Davis, Swaffham,
5, Rose Corbyn-Smith, Holt,
8, Shelby Davis, Swaffham,
9, Maya Whitemore-Tennent, Ely,
10, Katie Parkes, Swaffham,
11, Charlie Berjafield, Holt,
12, Alice Graham, Holt, Girl of the Match
13, Xanthe Sparkes, Swaffham,
14, Lesley Palmer, Holt,
15, Chloe Baker, St Josephs College.

Missing a few key players from their exploits at Harlow they had a re-shuffled pack and were forced to make changes in the backs.

The coaches agreed to play 4 quarters and Sussex were very generous in offering Eastern Counties use of their 4 reserves if needed.

Eastern Counties knew this would be a good test of their progress, but this did not dent their confidence and from the kick-off they were immediately on the offensive against a well organized Sussex team.

With a strong set of forwards, Eastern Counties made inroads into Sussex territory but with the conditions as they were they struggled to keep any continuity, and the first quarter was very evenly matched, both sides going close on a number of occasions, but strong tackling especially from debutantes Charlie Berjafield and Lesley Palmer on the wings kept the score to 0 - 0 until virtually the last play of the quarter when Eastern Counties captain, Claire Johnston, set up a driving maul from a line-out in her own 22, the ball was re-cycled through various phases before Xanthe Sparkes, on a lung-bursting run, broke through the Sussex defence to release Claire who fed on to girl of the match Alice Graham to score under the posts.

This pressure, despite rugged defence by Sussex resulted in a well worked try scored by Maya toward the end of the quarter.

At the beginning of the third quarter, Sussex made four changes which again gave them a boost and only some very strong tackling and organized defending by E.C., showing they are made of sterner stuff these days, kept their noses in front.

The fourth quarter, with both sides tiring, saw E.C. dig deep and camp in the Sussex 22, only for a massive defensive effort and a couple of unfortunate knock-ons, saw the game closed out with Eastern Counties winning by 10 points to nil.