Salford RLFC Ladies 0 Oulton Ladies 42 Match Report

 IMPROVED PERFORMANCE BRINGS NUMBER OF SMALL WINS AND PROMISE

Salford RLFC 0  Oulton Raidettes 42 Match Report  David Clegg

Not for the first time in recent weeks, Salford Ladies’ team was required to perform another ‘David & Goliath’ act, last Sunday, when they entertained Oulton Raidettes in their final home game of the season, though without the successful outcome of the Biblical story.

With a team comprised of older teenagers, and only a couple of more experienced players, the home side had to contend with successive onslaughts on their defence, and frequently on their try line, from a team of older, physically stronger and more mature opponents, who revelled in their physical superiority throughout the encounter.

After receiving buffettings from Cardiff and Swinton in their most recent games, the Salford players were determined to improve on those performances and make their mark on the game, despite the odds being so heavily stacked against them, and this they achieved with a number of small wins that combined to limit the number of points conceded and give themselves opportunities to launch attacks of their own.

Having realised the importance of, and having mastered the ability to retain the ball for complete sets, the home team needed a reminder of it all, after losing possession on the first tackle of their first two sets - a reminder which the Raidettes were happy to give by scoring on their left in only their third set, in the third minute.  From that point on, however, although they were not going to manage to turn anything into points on the board, Salford managed many small successes.

It started with them by containing the visitors for the following fifteen minutes, merely by the combination of ball retention and dogged defence by means of getting numbers into every tackle. The only superiority the Oulton side showed was in the number of metres they were able to make in each carry, and then consequently in every set, which is what one would expect from bigger, stronger individuals with a lengthier stride.

It was not, therefore, until the  eighteenth minute that Oulton doubled their lead to eight points, when they caught out their hosts with a blindside scoot from twelve metres out to ground, this time, in their right-hand corner.

A range of interesting ploys and skills was then used to deprive the opposition of any further score for the following twelve minutes.  Scrum-half, Isabella Woods, recently moved to fullback to replace the departed Anna Dennis, deployed a most influential kicking game throughout the eighty minutes. On this occasion, it was her restart from that second try, which she placed, not into an opponent’s grateful arms, but onto the hard, open ground, from which the ball bounced high into the air, over the winger’s head, and into touch, thus rewarding her teammates with an unexpected set of possession in the Raidettes thirty metre area, which they were able to build into their first attack on the visitors line.

Her next kick-off, in the 29th minute, was taken by the winger, deep in her own half, but the determined Salford chasers bundled her into touch, thus securing another additional set in which to test the Oulton line. She then highlighted it all in the 60th minute with a beautifully judged end-of -set kick upfield into the left corner, where it tormented the Raidette defenders by rolling to a slow halt in the in-goal and the speed of the Salford chasers forced them to knock it into dead, thus being forced to take a goal-line drop-out, which Salford won from the kick.

Most of those connected with our ladies’ team will well remember Alex Simpson’s famous ball-steal in the dying minutes of the match against Bradford, the try from which won the game.  This she repeated, in the 22nd minute, 25 metres out from the Oulton line, but sadly without the fairy-tale touchdown.  It did, nevertheless, provide not one but two additional sets, courtesy of a penalty on the fourth tackle of that initial set, and they really did come close to scoring towards the end of that period of possession,  Simpson, herself, came even closer to scoring late in the game when she got into the in-goal area, but was prevented from scoring by a number of defenders who kept her body and her hands well away from the ground.

This last close call seemed almost a mirror-image of another involving undoubted Player of the Match, Mia Regan, who had come equally close to opening the team’s account, and been denied in the most similar of circumstances.

Nothing, however, could detract from the highly impressive performance of the irrepressible Regan.  Her outstanding contribution started with some most impressive one-on-one tackles on the most dominating of opponents, wrapping her arms around their legs - often in full-flight - and allowing gravity to finish the job.  Alongside this, she increasingly caused problems for the visitors’ defence, with some tremendous hit-ups that were seldom halted by the first attempted tackles, as she warded off defender after defender, in runs similar to that which brought her a try against Bradford.

So tragic, therefore, was it for her and the Salford team, when she had to leave the field, on 66 mins, for an offence in an altercation with a number of defenders, which also saw an Oulton player sin-binned.  As said above, however, nothing could detract from the highly impressive performance she had contributed to the team, up to that point.

Small wins, so all of the above were, but the point is they were wins.  They were starting-points in the build up to attacks, all of which, then, become opportunities to score.  It was at that final point that the lack of size, strength, speed and experience, combined to leave them pointless.  All of that though, will, nevertheless, come in time.  Hopefully, next season.

SALFORD

Isabella Woods, Chloe Lyons, Lucy Grantham, Mia Regan, Eva Thomas, Lily Oakley, Niamh Kelly, Dearbhla McCoy, Emily Carlisle, Lydia Elstone, Katrina Blencowe, Jodie Morris, Alex Simpson

Interchanges

Bulak Dale, Eva Wilkinson, Gracie Barrett, Theresa Crookall, Esmai Wright

Pictures by Tara Moore

JDMATCHDAYPHOTOGRAPHY