Stratford Ladies retain touch rugby crown
STRATFORD Rugby Club's ladies team are celebrating after winning the NE Midland Ladies' Touch League title on Sunday.
Following victories for the Stratford’s 1sts, 2nds and colts teams on Saturday, the ladies continued the winning theme by claiming the touch league crown for the second year running.
Heading into the final meeting, the Black and Whites led the table by one point and knew they needed to finish higher than Redditch to triumph.
The squad had been heavily depleted for the previous tournament, but Stratford were nearly up to full strength again for this decider.
Eight teams competed at Newbold, which meant the tournament was played with the two pools of four structure. This would result in knockout style matches for positions. Stratford were up against Rugby St Andrew’s first.
Megan Mansfield only joined Stratford in September and at her first tournament started her campaign with two superb running tries, to quickly put the team 2-0 up.
Tries also came from speedsters Maddie Rendell (2) and Helen Clifford (2) as it finished 6-0.
Next came Berkswell and Balsall. Another four tries for Rendell and one each for Maddie Massey and Sarah Tooze saw Stratford’s second comfortable win for the day, 6-2.
Stratford then faced neighbours Wellesbourne to determine who finished top and second in the pool stage of the day. The game was extremely tight with no side giving anything away in defence and trying everything they could in attack.
Just before the final whistle, Wellesbourne exploited a small gap and secured a 1-0 victory.
The winners from each pool then had to play the runners up of the other pool, to determine who eventually played-off for 1st/2nd or 3rd/4th place.
Stratford faced Camp Hill in what they knew was a must-win match to keep the league title hopes alive and they did not disappoint.
Rendell grabbed another brace, while there were singles from Massey and Clifford as Stratford won 4-0.
The final game of the tournament saw Stratford take on Redditch for first/second place.
A win for Redditch would not only give them the tournament win, but also force a further play-off match between the same two teams to determine the winners of the league.
There had to be a result and Stratford knew it had to go their way.
Redditch were first to cross the whitewash and it looked like that would be the result until quick hands and feet put Rendell in to level the score, right on the final whistle.
This forced the game into a sudden death ‘drop-off’, which sees the team drop a player after every minute of play until there are only three remaining on each side.
If a team scores, the other team has a ‘right to reply’ and therefore has to score in their next set of six touches to stay in the game. Redditch again were the first to go over the try line, when the teams were down to three.
Stratford attacked hard in the next set of six and thought they had scored in the corner to keep the contest going.
However, the try was not allowed and so the tournament win went to Redditch, and Stratford had to settle for second.
With the overall league now tied between Stratford and Redditch, a replay of the match happened almost straight away to determine an outright league winner.
Both teams were running on reserves by the end of some exhausting rugby already and yet the touch rugby shown was still fantastic to watch. Both teams not only attacked hard but also defended like brick walls. With a minute to go, it looked like they were both facing another sudden death situation.
However, a well-executed ball out to the wing put Rendell over for her tenth try of the day. There was still time on the clock and the game did have to restart, but Redditch had no time to reach their try line and the Stratford celebrations could begin.
The final tournament of the season takes place at Droitwich on 30th October, where both SW and NE sides of the Midlands Ladies’ Touch League do battle in a Super Sunday competition.
