Published: 18th June 2018
Huddersfield Giants Under 19s Woman’s team played their inaugural game against the Royal Navy open age women’s team on Sunday afternoon. The fixture was the first off five home fixtures for 2018 in their very first season.
Captain Grace Ramsden won the captains toss and elected to kick to the Royal Navy left to right with Abby Crowther taking the kick off. Royal Navy received the ball well and took the first run into a solid well drilled defence. Moments later the Royal Navy knock on and Huddersfield receive the ball. Quick solid play the balls from Ramsden and Squire saw Wood power over to score the very first woman’s try in the famous claret and gold.
The following fifteen minutes of play saw a well drilled Giants side race to an early 18-0 lead through tried from Wood, Crowther and Ramsden who converted her own try. The early dominance wasn’t to last however as the Royal Navy were able to score with good hands out wide to fetch the score to 18-4.
A knock on from then restart gave Huddersfield a chance to regain possession and build a steady platform for the later stage of the first half, dominating possession and keeping the ball alive through some good skill with the ball in hand. This dominance saw the Giants go into half time leading 38-4 with further tries from Crowther, Wood and Slack (2).
The Royal Navy Kicked off the second half with extra enthusiasm and showed their military fitness to score, but the Giants were able to counter with a Ramsden try under the posts which she was able to convert. A further Royal Navy error from the kick off saw another Giants try out wide taking the game to 44-8.
A physical battle developed between the two sides seeing some bruising collisions from the opposing forwards forcing two Giants players to leave the field, but the Giants did not let this deter them from stuck to their game plan. A weaving run from Slack was the result and a further unconverted try for the Giants was the outcome. 48-8.
The final 20mins saw both sides making handling errors in what had been a hard fought physical battle. The Royal Navy were able to take advantage scoring from a well-executed kick and chase.
It was the Giants though that would take the final points of the game with both Wood and Slack adding to their earlier tries.
Final score 58-16, a fantastic spectacle of Woman’s Rugby League on the inaugural day out of the Huddersfield Giants u19s woman’s team. There were candidates a plenty for player of the match but with a fantastic captains display the award went to Grace Ramsden for the Giants. Samantha Alderson was the best on the day for the Royal Navy.
Huddersfield Giant’s Under 19s Women’s Team will take on Wigan Warriors U19’s Women’s team on Friday 22nd June, kick-off 7:45pm at Orchard Park in their next match as they get off to a home opener in the league.
TEAM: Emmi Manning, Jamie-Leigh Scott, Hafsa Ur-Rehman, Louise Travers, Beth Squire, Erin O’Grady, Grace Ramsden (C), Codie Slack, Olivia Cummins, Olivia Wood, Loren Gregory, Ebony Haley, Abby Crowther
Replacements: Chloe Brown, Elyse Royal, Abigayle Brook
Tries: Olivia Wood (4), Abby Crowther (2), Codie Slack (4), Grace Ramsden (2)
Goals: Grace Ramsden (5)
