Little did we know at the time, that our match away to Stanford Sirens Ladies Rugby, that was originally scheduled to be out last game of the season, then wasn’t, actually turned out to be our last game of the season.

After a crazy week for the whole country, today England Rugby confirmed that the crazy 2019/2020 season would finish immediately. Which is great for us, because we finished on a brilliant high!

After an intense first game against the sirens at the beginning of the season, the Ravens knew it would be another tough fixture against the two passionate sides. But as the sirens took the win the first time around, the Ravens travelled to theirs with the determination to prove themselves.

It didn’t start out great, as Ravens second rower, Bryony Hurford, succumbed to an ankle injury before the match had even kicked off!

The game began and both teams were level pegging. The ball moved up and down the field, with no one team managing to take full control.

With the sirens kicking the ball for territory, the ball fell into the arms of full back Amy Wakerley, who ran the ball back up field. Two Sirens players threw everything into trying to stop her, and managed to stop each other instead. Such was the force of the collision, that one player was swiftly taken to hospital with a dislocated elbow - we hope she is ok!

After moving pitches, the sirens took control briefly, and the Ravens found themselves under pressure. However, some fantastic defence meant the Ravens turned the ball over and before long, they were back in possession and in their half.

With a strong scrum and fast runners, the Ravens began to dominate in all areas of the field.
With the backs running the ball up the wing, the forwards set up pod after pod to creep closer to the line. It was just meters out when scrum half Muggy found space at the side of the ruck to score the Ravens first, hard earned try.

After kick off, the Ravens found themselves back in the home team’s half. Piling on the pressure, the Ravens kept the sirens pinned in and in control. It wasn’t long before a scrum came five metres out from the try line. With all their might, the Ravens overpowered the home scrum and drove the ball over the line, with H at number 8 grounding the ball for the Ravens’ second try.

It was half time and the Ravens felt optimistic for the second half, despite there being lots more work to do.

In the second half, the sirens came back harder and took control much more. For the first time in the game, the Ravens were back in their half and having to defend much more.
Tensions got heated and the game got scrappy, but the Ravens managed to continue with some great tackling and defence to keep the home side at bay.

With play opening up the Ravens managed to get back into Stanford territory. Stanford kicked to exit out of their red zone, but the ball fell into the hands of Amy, who ran the ball back up field, bouncing off about 8 sirens like she was in a pin ball machine, gaining about 50 metres for the Ravens. She then popped the ball to H, who whipped it out to Lucy Kerr who sealed an incredible passage of play with a well deserved try, and sealing the Ravens victory.

Huge thanks to Stanford for a cracking game- we hope your injured players are on their way to a speedy recovery and look forward to next season!

Forward of the match this week went to Rosie Tamayo for some brilliant powerful runs, great tackling and rucking.

Back of the match this week went to Amy - that run will not be forgotten by the Ravens for a long time! What a great game!

A big thank you goes to everyone who helped with the fixture, and to everyone who came along to support, we really appreciate it!

And finally, this marked Sue Douglas’s very last game for the Ravens, finally retiring after 11 years in a Romford shirt, at the impressive age of 57. After taking up the sport at the age of 46, she proved that age was just a number and gave the younger girls a real run for their money. One of the best tacklers the team has ever seen, she will be so missed!

Congratulations on an inspiring career Sue!

Thanks to everyone for their support this season! Keep safe and well over the summer and fingers crossed we will be able to go back to doing what we do best in September.

Check out the pictures from the exciting game via the link below:
https://www.romfordrugby.co.uk/photos/stanford-sirens-v-ravens-968916.html