Hackney Ladies celebrate triumphant rugby debut

The Gladies pushed ahead with dedication

Hackney’s first ever women’s rugby team, featured in the Citizen last month, have gone from strength to strength, culminating in a resounding 40 – 29 victory over Millwall in their first friendly fixture.

Despite this being a debut match for several players – some having experienced only four or five training session beforehand – the team put in an excellent performance with noteworthy individual skill.

Nevertheless, their opponents played a strong physical game and proved themselves willing to go in for the tackle. The Millwall number seven proved the most significant headache for the Gladies with strength, pace and a good dose of experience. Nevertheless, storming tackles on her from scrum half Charley Miller managed to rattle her cage at least once.

Although she managed to put away all five of the tries conceded by Hackney through her individual efforts, it proved insufficient to win the game. The Gladies pushed ahead with dedicated tackling and rucking from the forwards, including captain Emma Middleton, and skill from Miller and fly half Campbell in shipping the ball wide at pace.

Hackney wrapped up their haul of points with a superb final try. Campbell made a well-judged pass to Lydia Meeson, with the centre then finding space and setting up Francis with another try by offloading out of contact.

There were several stellar performances from the team, including Miller’s impressive haul of five successful conversions out of six. Nevertheless, player of the match went to second row Letitia Clark, who dominated the line-out and put in countless tackles.

Millwall Ladies 29 – 40 Hackney Ladies

Tries: Natalie Francis 5, Helen Wilding 1, Conv: Charley Miller 5 from 6.

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