LEOS LADIES II 5 – 26 ORMSKIRK LADIES
Turning over last season’s third placed team in North 2 26 – 5 on their own patch should have been a cause for celebration for the newly promoted Ormskirk Ladies. But it wasn’t. Despite the comfortable margin the game finished with a sense of frustration and … well … defeat.
Everything had looked rosy in the early minutes when hooker Lesley ‘Davros’ Kenny had stolen a Leos’ put in at the scrum. The ball was whizzed out to wing Claire Rylance who skittered in under the posts from 60m out. So that was it then. Leos had neither the pace nor the organisation in their backs to withstand the Ladies’ three-quarters.
The impression was reinforced moments later when flanker Lottie Doyle elected to run the ball in her own 22. Through the hands of centre Louise Robinson, full back Anna O’Malley and wing Rachel Cowans it went before a switch back inside put centre Emma Gander in under the posts. Fly half Jenny Leitch converted again.
Ten minutes gone. 14 – 0. Surely the Ladies were looking at a mountain of points ?
Err … no. What the Ladies were looking at, with increasing dismay, was the big, wobbly blancmange that is the Ladies’ scrum. There are many ways to lose scrum ball. You can have it pinched on your own put in, you can win it and get driven off it, you can win it and get it stuck in the second row, you can win it and let it squirt out the side, you can rocket it straight out of the back of the scrum at light speed and you can win it, get wheeled and lose the put in. The Ladies managed all these.
It was as though they were compiling an instructional pamphlet – “Scrummaging : Twenty Common Errors” or “Scrummaging Made Difficult”.
And if, by some happy chance, the ball did finish up at the feet of No 8 Lou Prescott, scrum half Kate Traynor ( ably abetted by a referee whose liberal interpretation of the Laws put the offside line somewhere near Reykjavik ) was having the kind of day at the back of the scrum that would force most 9s to retire to a darkened room with a glass of whisky and a loaded pistol.
The Ladies managed to scrape up a bit of ball from somewhere and another try from Rylance gave the Ladies a 19 – 0 lead at half time.
Ex Coach Sam Botfield tinkered with the scrum at half time, but to no effect. The backs continued to be starved of ball. It was like trying to run a Rolls Royce with a lawnmower engine. Fly half Jenny Leitch won the game with a typically bustling run to take the score to 26 – 0. Leitch, who is usually a complete sweetheart, occasionally develops this cold, hard stare which effectively communicates “Round you or through you – your choice” to defenders. The sensible ones choose the former.
Leos were stung. After all, how do win 80% of the ball and find yourself that far behind? Dominating territorially they launched wave after wave of attacks on the Ormskirk line. And this was where the Ladies’ pack, putting the muddle of the scrums behind them, fronted up. The line defence was outstanding. And in it none more so than flanker Doyle and Girl of the Game lock Carmel Dunkley. A various times the pitch was littered with prone Leos with little cards on their chests saying “Congratulations ! You’ve been Dunkled !’.
Leos got a try back as reward for all their huff and puff but they can’t be looking forward to visiting Green Lane later in the season when they will face, not only the Ormskirk threequarters, but also a fearsome pack finely honed by months and months of fitness training and scrummaging practice … and, of course, the famous flying pig.
