Welwyn Warriors Under 15 Team are officially the best Girls Rugby Rugby in the Country in this age group. On Sunday they travelled to Lichfield RFC to play in this Seasons RFUW National Cup Final against Paviors from Nottinghamshire and won a very tense game by the closest of margins 5-3. This was second time lucky as last Season the other Welwyn Girls side, the Under 18 Team, had reached their Final, but lost by 2 points to Worcester.
Warriors had gone into this game as the underdogs, as although they had won every single 13 a side (full team) game this Season, they had lost in the Worthing 10’s Tournament Final the previous Sunday to Paviors. Coaches Greg Maxwell and Adrian Pomfret therefore had exactly one week to work out a plan to turn this around, which focused on quickly closing down the very talented and fast Paviors Backs to prevent them getting space to sprint.
The first half was very close, and the Warriors defence was watertight. The only score was a Penalty for Paviors who lead 3-0 at half-time. Warriors came out for the second half knowing they were 25 minutes from glory and for 10 minutes battered the Paviors line until finally Tight-head Prop Charlie Faloona barged her way through for an unconverted Try. Welwyn were in front for the first time at 5-3 with 15 minutes and every single Welwyn Player tackled as well as they had ever done. Paviors realised that they weren’t going to be able to win by scoring a Try, and had two more Penalty attempts to take the lead, one of which missed the posts by inches.
Eventually after what seemed like endless injury time, the Referee blew the whistle and Welwyn Girls had won their first, but hopefully not last, National Rugby Title.
Warriors Under 15 Head Coach Greg Maxwell said ’13 of the team played today (Abbie Maxwell, Sydnie Grace, Charlie Faloona, Olivia Lee, Scarlett Cooper-Wall, Amber King, Bryony Pomfret, Captain Courtney Arberry, Lotte Clapp, Rachel Mccullough, Becky Dawson, Shira Kilgallon, Sidney Nurthen) but all 20 Players in the Squad played in the earlier Rounds, so this really was a total squad effort. The final was so tense, I now need a lie down!’