WOMEN’S TEAM HEAD COACH CARL ALEXIS’ TOURNAMENT 1 REVIEW 2022
Our first game of the new season lined us up against the only team we had beaten last year, the Hertfordshire Cheetahs.
We had proved to ourselves then that we could win in the premiership division and we were determined to do so again.
The game started with multiple changes of possession with both defences holding strong and each landing a sack of their own (ours curtesy of newly converted LB Lucy Bridge) but neither team were able to put any points on the board. This changed when late in the half rookie Cecilie Wicklund ran the ball 40yds down the side of the field for the score. We had taken the lead 6-0 but the Cheetahs were not to be outdone and on their next drive a long pass was tipped by one of their receivers gratefully into the hands of another who ran all the way to level the score.
Going tied into the second half we knew that we had the chance to win the game and when an errant snap forced the Cheetahs to concede a safety our chances were raised higher. Our next drive stalled but the clock was running down and although we tried to hold onto our slim lead the Cheetahs caught us out with a deep pass and scored their second TD of the day. Down four points we had one last opportunity for the win but a sack in our endzone and the safety it gave up sealed the fate of the game with the Cheetahs winning 14-8.
We fought hard and barring a few mishaps the outcome would have been very different. We know where we went wrong and are determined not to let this happen next time. It was not all doom and gloom though as we were able to get most of our new players on field (including our two new QB’s) and they all contributed positively to the game. Even our lines performed well with our OL managing to acquire a couple of pancakes and our DL putting constant pressure on the Cheetahs offence whilst our defence was lead in tackles by our veteran Dory Bogdan.
We knew our second game was going to be an uphill struggle as we faced possibly the best women’s team in the country, the Birmingham Lions. We met the challenge as we do all our games with the mentality to win, our mindset is and never has been one to ‘just go and compete’, we always play to win.
However, we were well aware of the Lions prowess and were even more so considering they had just decisively beaten the Warriors (the team who last season taught us a valuable lesson about being in the premiership).
Therefore it wasn’t surprising when on their first drive they promptly scored and then consecutively held our offence firmly in check. What was surprising to most though was our D stepping up and stalling the Lions next drive and then our O mounting an impressive drive of their own, culminating in a 42 yard touchdown run by the recently married Charlie George! We were now tied with the Lions 6-6!
Unfortunately this was as close as it would get as on each subsequent drive the Lions were to score. There was one bright spark left for us however, on the final drive of the game QB Karina Vesteng found fellow rookie Cecilie Wicklund open for a 48 yard touchdown pass.
The Lions won convincingly 48-12 but we had put two scores on them, two scores nobody thought we could and we’d scored just as many TD’s against them as the Warriors had done the game before. We were beaten by the better team on the day but we managed to fulfil some of the tasks we had set out for ourselves. We had succeeded in running the ball against their D, both of our QB’s completed passes and our D lead by (also recently married) Sophie George made numerous gang tackles.
We learnt a lot from this game that we will put to good use and saw many improvements in our play.
Ultimately we didn’t win a game this tournament but we will keep improving and it won’t be long before we start to challenge the bigger teams for the top spots.
Our next tournament will be in Birmingham where we will play the Warriors and the Lions.
We will be going up against the best the country has to offer and many might think our chances are a ‘million to one’ but as the late great author T Pratchett once wrote: “a million-to-one chance succeeds nine times out of ten”.
Watch this space.
Helmet Stickers for plays of the game went to:
Game 1: Lucy Bridge for her sack
Game 2: Charlie George for her TD
MVP of the day went to Sophie George for her always reliable and characteristically hard-hitting tackling.
