Mansfield Women 71–07 Amber Valley Women

If ever you needed a reminder about the fickleness of British weather, this past weekend gave it to you! Saturday bought with it a sense of spring with temperatures in the double digits and, despite the odd fine shower, a warmth that it feels has not been seen for many months. And then came Sunday, whose job it was to remind us that we are not, in fact, anywhere near spring, dumping copious amounts of rain and turning the Eakring Road pitch into a slip-and-slide.

That said, the blue-and-whites did well to manage the conditions against a fierce Amber Valley side to run out comfortable winners. This was all the more impressive considering the team had 3 under-18 graduates amongst an already youthful squad.

Dean Blake, deputising for head coach Dave Woodcock, was, unsurprisingly, very happy: ‘I thought we controlled the weather well and our youngsters really got stuck in so I’m very proud of them.’

Mansfield playing well and cohesively as a team shouldn’t be a surprise considering their season so far, sitting second in the table with just one loss, to the team sitting above them in first. This game started out on a very positive footing and continued upwards from there.

With the scoreboard ticking over at such a relentless pace, it almost belied the fact the ball was increasingly difficult to keep hold of. Both teams struggled at times to maintain possession and that meant more scrums than usual. However, those scrums never dulled the game and the commitment of both teams to offload as much as possible would end up making the game hugely enjoyable. To their credit, Amber Valley never stopped for a second, even with an injury break forcing a relatively early change. They were fierce in attack and while not every offload hit the mark, the ones that did were fantastic to watch. This ambition, coupled with some penalties, saw the visitors take their one and only try. A successful conversion saw them gain 7 points, their final tally.

Overall, the home team controlled the game well and scored 6 tries in the first half. Within the first few minutes, Laina Corah had opened up the scoring. It was unconverted but it set out a standard that the home team continued to aim for and exceed. Corah was joined on the scoresheet in the first half by Cat Chambers, who scored the first two of an eventual hat-trick and continues to be a role model, Summer Smith and Millie Hemsley, who deserve all the plaudits coming to them for their outstanding debuts, and finally Emily Bingley, who continues to be an absolute force to be reckoned with.

This half had a bit of everything: powerful running from forwards, intense clean outs in the rucks, mazy running and quick taps from penalties that saw multiple excellent support lines and offloads aplenty. Smith in particular ran a smart supporting line from a quick tap to make sure she was available to pick up a deft offload and sprint the remaining 30 metres to score. With Corah adding a conversion, the half time score read 32-7 and put the home team in a commanding position.

The Second half continued the pattern of the first and, in fact, improved on what had been shown before. The home team added another 7 tries to their tally and each one was as impressive as the last. By this point, the weather had made the pitch much stodgier and the ball even more slippery. This meant that there were more stoppages than the first half but the blue-and-whites took advantage of every opportunity they could and kept the scoreboard ticking over.

Chambers completed her hat trick and further tries were added by Ffion Roberts, Hannah Brereton and Tia Titley, who were monstrous all game, breaking tackles, turning over balls and making absolute nuisances of themselves. Marie-Ann Battersby added a tricky conversion to keep the points climbing. Lexi Hall, who joined Hemsley and Smith as the third youth graduate, etched her name on the

scoresheet as she also had an outstanding debut. Hemsley added two more for a hat trick of her own and slotted a conversion to cap off about as perfect a senior debut as you could hope for.

This isn’t the first time the senior team have had multiple youth debuts and, it is to be hoped, it won’t be the last. Lexi Hall, Millie Hemsley and Summer Smith are a credit to that youth system. All of them looked perfectly at home, slotting in well amongst other youth graduates and more senior players alike. They harassed and harried all game, running support lines, making tackles, hitting rucks and making their own marks on the game. It may come as no surprise, then, that Hall and Hemsley picked up the joint player of the match award. As debuts go, not bad at all.

The final score read 71-7 to the blue-and-whites, capping off a thoroughly enjoyable game of rugby in thoroughly unenjoyable conditions. Amber Valley deserve their flowers too, they never stopped and, despite the scoreline, were just as stubborn and dogged in the last minute as they were in the first. Mansfield can be elated with this performance. While they’ve registered some high scores this season, this was the highest so far and showed a mature performance in difficult conditions against a tenacious opposition. Incredible moments, relentless effort, rugby at its finest!