The 31 st of October 2020 saw the 2 nd outing of the Black Swans. This time an hours drive along the
south circular to a Ready4Rugby tournament over at Tooting Bec hosted by the Bec Belles. 12 Black
Swans made the journey over, ably supported by the travelling faithful and of course Coach Connelly.
In a similar format to the previous tournament there were 2 groups and a promise of 4 games. The
last of which would be play offs to decide final standings. This tournament was 8 a side with once
again rolling subs.
First up this week was Aylesford, a well established team who had a made a good showing in the
previous tournament a few weeks previous. Aylesford opened the scoring after a good passing
move. The second came after an excellent dummy in midfield saw a simple 2 on 1 executed well for
the score. A breakaway from inside their own half saw them rack up their third unanswered try.. A
sustained period of pressure which showed some excellent defence from the Black Swans
unfortunately couldn’t be stopped and a fourth try was scored out wide. Black swans were still
showing the fight and made progress into Aylesfords half, unfortunately an interception meant that
Aylesford again scored. More good attacking came from the black swans showing that they weren’t
going to give up without a fight, although the ball was turned over and Aylesford swiftly turned
defence into attack, breaking into the Swans half, only to commit a forward pass. A pattern seems to
be emerging at this point as Swans kept producing some excellent attacking play without playing the
killer pass and another breakway meant Aylesford scored again. In this game however, The Swans
had the final say. Some good interplay and great passing, and despite some offside by the
opposition, put Sarah away for the Swans first try of the day with the final play of the game.
Next up were Sutton and Epsom. Again the Swans found themselves up against a team with vastly
more experience but they had no fears going into the game. Swans took some time to get going,
conceding four tries despite some excellent defence all round, but then hit back with a try from Ellie,
after a great run down the left wing from Lola. They followed this up with a 2 nd , some good quick
hands in the middle of the park resulted in a try on the left wing from Laura. Sutton and Epsom then
hit back with another before Vicki scored fairly quickly from the kickoff, there were some good runs
through the middle particularly from Vonnie, and then a break on the outside by Vicki resulted in her
first try of the day. Swans fourth try of the game came from Lola, some good interplay in the middle
of the park once again was kept going and sent Lola over. Then came one of the days most
controversial/frustrating/funny moments. An interception on their line by Vicki was followed by a
run of Benny Hill proportions as having been touched once she was unable to score, Laura showed
great commitment to make up the ground and received the pass only to mishear the referee and lose
the ball. This was then passed backwards to no one in particular in a black jersey and instead picked
up by some retreating Sutton and Epsom players that ran the length to score. Swans next score came
from some more good passing in the middle of the park to release Jo on the right who passed to
Emma to score. Sutton and Epsom completed the scoring with a further try. An excellent showing
from the Black Swans here as they scored multiple tries and showed some excellent defence in a
game that could have easily gone away from them.
The final game of the group stages saw the Black swans pitted against one of the two teams the
hosts had entered. This time the scoring was started by the Swans, a good run down the sideline
from Steph resulted in Jo going over in the left hand corner. The Belles responded quickly with some
quick passing to score and level the scores. Sarah then had an excellent run from halfway halted
before Jo scored again. Becs responded once again to level the scores. Swans once again took the
lead with a 3 rd try. Vicki broke down the left and was tackled before some good passing got the ball
back in her hands and she scored again. In a very see saw game, Becs scored again. They then took
the lead after a dropped ball by Swans near the opposition line resulted in a fly hack (previously
outlawed by the refs) and a chase up field. Near the line as Jo was tracking back the chaser fell to
the floor, the ref deemed that she had been tripped by Jo (despite no clear contact) and a penalty try
was awarded. They then scored another to extend their lead. Despite these setbacks the Swans
continued to play hard and after an attack that started in their own half they scored once again with
Steph getting her name on the score sheet in the corner. This ended the scoring in what was an
excellent game between 2 well matched teams.
The final game of the day came against the 2 nd of the hosts teams, and although a disappointing
result for the Swans they did score once more through Vicki in a game where the Hungover
schoolboy refs interpretations of some of the laws was well utilised by the opposition.
All in all a great performance once again from all of the swans involved, they have had a steep
learning curve and have shown that they can take all the learnings and turn them into some excellent
play, great commitment and some excellent tries. Their first win still eludes them but if they
continue to play like this that certainly wont be far away (Lockdown pending of course...)
Players player of the tournament unanimously went to Laura in her first games and fanny on the field
went to Lola, who despite standing around for half an hour after arriving only decided to put her
boots on once the others had started the warm up.
south circular to a Ready4Rugby tournament over at Tooting Bec hosted by the Bec Belles. 12 Black
Swans made the journey over, ably supported by the travelling faithful and of course Coach Connelly.
In a similar format to the previous tournament there were 2 groups and a promise of 4 games. The
last of which would be play offs to decide final standings. This tournament was 8 a side with once
again rolling subs.
First up this week was Aylesford, a well established team who had a made a good showing in the
previous tournament a few weeks previous. Aylesford opened the scoring after a good passing
move. The second came after an excellent dummy in midfield saw a simple 2 on 1 executed well for
the score. A breakaway from inside their own half saw them rack up their third unanswered try.. A
sustained period of pressure which showed some excellent defence from the Black Swans
unfortunately couldn’t be stopped and a fourth try was scored out wide. Black swans were still
showing the fight and made progress into Aylesfords half, unfortunately an interception meant that
Aylesford again scored. More good attacking came from the black swans showing that they weren’t
going to give up without a fight, although the ball was turned over and Aylesford swiftly turned
defence into attack, breaking into the Swans half, only to commit a forward pass. A pattern seems to
be emerging at this point as Swans kept producing some excellent attacking play without playing the
killer pass and another breakway meant Aylesford scored again. In this game however, The Swans
had the final say. Some good interplay and great passing, and despite some offside by the
opposition, put Sarah away for the Swans first try of the day with the final play of the game.
Next up were Sutton and Epsom. Again the Swans found themselves up against a team with vastly
more experience but they had no fears going into the game. Swans took some time to get going,
conceding four tries despite some excellent defence all round, but then hit back with a try from Ellie,
after a great run down the left wing from Lola. They followed this up with a 2 nd , some good quick
hands in the middle of the park resulted in a try on the left wing from Laura. Sutton and Epsom then
hit back with another before Vicki scored fairly quickly from the kickoff, there were some good runs
through the middle particularly from Vonnie, and then a break on the outside by Vicki resulted in her
first try of the day. Swans fourth try of the game came from Lola, some good interplay in the middle
of the park once again was kept going and sent Lola over. Then came one of the days most
controversial/frustrating/funny moments. An interception on their line by Vicki was followed by a
run of Benny Hill proportions as having been touched once she was unable to score, Laura showed
great commitment to make up the ground and received the pass only to mishear the referee and lose
the ball. This was then passed backwards to no one in particular in a black jersey and instead picked
up by some retreating Sutton and Epsom players that ran the length to score. Swans next score came
from some more good passing in the middle of the park to release Jo on the right who passed to
Emma to score. Sutton and Epsom completed the scoring with a further try. An excellent showing
from the Black Swans here as they scored multiple tries and showed some excellent defence in a
game that could have easily gone away from them.
The final game of the group stages saw the Black swans pitted against one of the two teams the
hosts had entered. This time the scoring was started by the Swans, a good run down the sideline
from Steph resulted in Jo going over in the left hand corner. The Belles responded quickly with some
quick passing to score and level the scores. Sarah then had an excellent run from halfway halted
before Jo scored again. Becs responded once again to level the scores. Swans once again took the
lead with a 3 rd try. Vicki broke down the left and was tackled before some good passing got the ball
back in her hands and she scored again. In a very see saw game, Becs scored again. They then took
the lead after a dropped ball by Swans near the opposition line resulted in a fly hack (previously
outlawed by the refs) and a chase up field. Near the line as Jo was tracking back the chaser fell to
the floor, the ref deemed that she had been tripped by Jo (despite no clear contact) and a penalty try
was awarded. They then scored another to extend their lead. Despite these setbacks the Swans
continued to play hard and after an attack that started in their own half they scored once again with
Steph getting her name on the score sheet in the corner. This ended the scoring in what was an
excellent game between 2 well matched teams.
The final game of the day came against the 2 nd of the hosts teams, and although a disappointing
result for the Swans they did score once more through Vicki in a game where the Hungover
schoolboy refs interpretations of some of the laws was well utilised by the opposition.
All in all a great performance once again from all of the swans involved, they have had a steep
learning curve and have shown that they can take all the learnings and turn them into some excellent
play, great commitment and some excellent tries. Their first win still eludes them but if they
continue to play like this that certainly wont be far away (Lockdown pending of course...)
Players player of the tournament unanimously went to Laura in her first games and fanny on the field
went to Lola, who despite standing around for half an hour after arriving only decided to put her
boots on once the others had started the warm up.
