After the final round of the conference cup, we were drawn in the ‘Cup’ half of the draw, which meant a trip to Casuals rugby club for a semi-final.
Our semi-final game was against a strong Casuals side, we counted 30 players training at the warm-up. However, a ‘match day squad’ of 20 was what we faced. We had a 14 and were in high spirits going in to the match, we eventually managed to borrow a player to make it 15 a-side. Once kicked off we were more than holding our own, they were a physical, well drilled team, fast to the rucks but our girls kept tackling what was in front of them. We struggled to get in to the game as we were doing so much defending, when we did get the ball it seemed like we tried to force it too much. We did score a great try with some silky footballing skills, kicking the ball up the pitch and getting it down under a lot of pressure from the opposition. But Casuals took advantage of small errors and those fine margins cost us in the end, a fantastic effort from the Newark girls but not meant to be.

So we went in to the 3rd place playoff against Loughborough, a team we had only beaten by two points the week before. Again, we borrowed one player to make it competitive and 15 a-side, it started in a similar fashion as it looked to be a ferocious contest. Loughborough had clearly been working on their defence in midfield as there wasn’t the same space as before. Also getting to breakdowns very quickly and using big, strong runners to suck in players to stop them. They were a constant threat, whether that be out wide or ’route 1’ and scored tries form various positions. We did get on the scoreboard though with another great individual try. Not the day I or the girls wanted but that doesn’t take away from a very progressive season, you should ALL be very proud of where you are in your rugby journey.

Nottingham Casuals 24 – Newark 5
Loughborough 29 – Newark 5

Written by Mark Gill
Checked by Neil Chrispin