After an avalanche of injuries almost made Ross Ladies withdraw from the season’s second Super Sunday tournament at Stratford Upon Avon, they decided to go ahead with just seven players, and three of those were bandaged up with bad ankle injuries.

They arrived late and really did not expect to do very well. There was no time for a warm up and they went straight into their opening game against Wellesbourne. However they showed their superior team work throughout the afternoon and achieved second place overall.

Sarah Bevan opened the scoring for Ross, looping Helen who created the overlap for a great opening try. Sarah was soon on the scoresheet again, with captain Nicola Wall drawing the Wellesbourne defence with some great off the ball running, allowing Sarah to send a dummy and with a quick sidestep scored a lovely try.

Helen Taylor-Davies was next to score for Ross who hit a lovely angle at pace and popped a lovely pass by Mel Germaney for Ross to finish the game 3-0 victors.

The second game was against Berkswell & Balsall. Nicola spotted a looped pass from a Berkswell attacking move and popped up with a lovely interception to score a solo try to put Ross 1-0 up.

There was nothing solo about the second try for Ross, starting on their own try line with six touches by excellent hands from the whole team, and fast recycling of the ball by Michelle Kendall Jeffery and Chanise Beard (who was playing in her first tournament despite recovering from a broken ankle) saw a great team effort, with Sarah scoring a great team try.

While that team try was good, Aidie Batt finished off with the try of the tournament for Ross, with some great movement, angles and passing by the whole team to give Ross a great 3-0 victory.

Two victories meant they could play for the cup. Their opponents were the home team Stratford, Pershore and Redditch. Against Stratford they played some great rugby and despite grounding the ball three times on each occasion the tries were not awarded. The Ross defence was fantastic and Stratford never looked like scoring, so the players were slightly disappointed to finish the game in a 0-0 draw.

The next game was against Pershore and the heat of the day was starting to affect this small Ross squad.

Pershore opened the scoring, but Ross soon hit back with Sarah scoring a great try with a fantastic sidestep and dummy to go into the last few minutes at 1-1. The Ross defence was unfortunately breeched for a second time to see Pershore run in as 2-1 winners.

The team enjoyed a break to cool off before the last game against Redditch. There was a great opening try by Nicola. She read a beautiful interception on her own line and then ran the length of the pitch for a great solo effort.

The final score of the game pretty much summed up the day, a great team effort, quick recycling and a carefree approach saw Sarah score the second of the game for Ross to run in 2-0 winners.

Overall Ross finished in second place out of 13 teams. Considering only 12 hours earlier they had considered pulling out they were all thrilled.

In the Super Sunday League standings Ross are in first place with one more Super Sunday tournament to play at Droitwich on October 30th.

The player of the tournament was Michelle Kendall Jeffery who did not put a foot wrong all day.