Ferns beat Crusaders to set up Cup Final against the Army

A full squad of Ferns made the long trip east to Hitchin RFC to face the North Hertfordshire Crusaders in the final round of the Southern Championship.  Since our last outing against the Army 3 weeks prior, the team received a walkover victory for the round 4 fixture against Bedford Tigers, who sadly haven’t been able to field a side all season.  The Ferns therefore knew that victory would seal a second-placed finish on the ladder, and a place in the Cup Final creating an opportunity to go toe-to-toe with the strong Army side again.

Ferns captain Vicky Mansell won the toss and chose to kick off and play into a slight breeze.  Straight from the off the Ferns showed their physicality with some big hits in defence going in from Chloe Fletcher, Daisy Pearce-Lyons and Robyn Price, with Gabbie Collins, Trish Brown and new half back Toni Robinson all making good yardage with the ball.

It didn’t take long for the Ferns to cross the whitewash – second row Alex Rowles showed some good footwork to create an opportunity before passing on to centre Pearce-Lyons who accelerated through a gap before dummying and dotting down.  Only a few minutes later prop Brown barged her way over to score a good try, with Mansell adding the extras.

The tries kept on coming, as Sarah Humphries spotted a dog-leg in the defensive line to exploit and score, and soon after it was the turn of Scotland centre Enya Lackie to show a clean pair of heels to round the sliding defence and dive in at the corner.  Mansell added an extra to bring up 20 points for the Ferns without response.

The Ferns started to make some interchanges around the 20 minute mark, with Emily Jennings and Rachel Marley coming on at prop.  Sadly for Jennings, within a few minutes she stayed down in the tackle after an enterprising piece of play in what was a game ending ankle injury.  We all hope it’s not as serious as feared and that she’s back on the pitch again soon.  Jennings was replaced by Sarah Dickinson, on debut for the Ferns in her first ever game of rugby league.  She was straight into the action making some solid tackles in defence and really getting stuck in.

NH Crusaders did hit back with a couple of tries either side of a score from Robinson on debut for the Ferns having previously played RL for Newcastle Thunder.  The Ferns were very much in control as the half time whistle was blown, with the scores at 10-26.

A few more changes to the team and tweaks to attacking structures ensued at half time, and it appeared to work as it wasn’t long until Esme Bird crossed for a score, closely followed by second scores for both Humphries and Brown.  The Ferns were enjoying themselves, in particular Chloe Fletcher who was putting in some huge hits and carries, completely dominating all aspects of the game!

The Crusaders did score a third try – in fact it was our very own Vicky Mansell who dotted down while playing for the opposition on the wing to help them out following an injury to their player; but the Ferns scored try number nine through Robinson, and the game was then wrapped up by a brilliant score which saw Lackie cut a last minute switch with Mansell just as she was being tackled by the Crusaders full back, timing the pass perfectly for Lackie to score under the posts.

Overall the Ferns scored 10 tries, with 6 successful conversions.  Some of the play in both attack and defence was hugely positive, and some of the game management from the team was a step up from previous games.  The team know though that to have a chance against the Army in the final they will need to cut out unforced errors, and stick to the game plan for the full 80 minutes to remain in the arm wrestle.