The weather was kind enough to stay dry in Rugby for the first of the Midlands Super Sunday Tournament, held at Old Laurentians on June 26th.

Ross were drawn in Pool 3 and played some excellent rugby, considering they were playing with an injury-ravaged squad of eight players, one carrying an ankle injury and another a sickness bug.

The first game against Wellesbourne was a close game, with Wellesbourne opening the scoring. However, Sarah Bevan scored two great tries. One was a brilliant dive for the line and the other a fantastic loop around Helen Taylor-Davies to score in the corner. The final score was Ross 2 Wellesbourne 1.

The second game against Rugby SA saw Ross, brimming with confidence, run in five unanswered tries. The first, scored by Helen, saw her juggling skills hold onto the ball to open the scoring. Ross’ second try was a well-worked effort, with Michelle Kendal-Jeffries collecting the ball and popping it back to Helen, who was put clear into space to score a try.

Helen soon had her hat-trick, running a great line, and receiving a perfectly timed pass from Sarah, to score the best try of the day so far. Ross’ fourth try was scored by Sarah, who was put into space by Laura Kendal-Seal, for yet another well worked try.

The last try was a fantastic team effort, with great hands down the line, some great running from Aidie Batt and Mel Germaney to Kim Parker in for an emphatic 5-0 victory. Ross finished top of their group.

The second phase of the tournament meant that Ross would be playing in the cup phase of the tournament against the winners of all of the other three pools. It also guaranteed that Ross would finish in the top four of the Midlands’ teams.

The first game was against the North Midlands league leaders - Stratford. This was a very tight game from start to finish, however another great running line from Helen saw her split the Stratford defence for an excellent try.

Unfortunately, Stratford scored a try when a mix-up in defence saw them score, as the group believed that they were defending the five metre line, but alas it was their try line, to finish the game with a one-all draw.

The second game was against Redditch. The squad were tiring but started well, with Sarah scoring a lovely try after some great hands across the team, and Amy Yates put in a great timed pass to Sarah for a touch down.

Redditch, with a larger and fresher looking squad, then took control, scoring three tries and taking full advantage of the tiring Ross defence, but Helen, as she had done all day, ran a great line to score and finished the game with the first loss 2-3.

The team’s final game was against their nemesis, Pershore. The girls were tired, but excited and looked nice and relaxed as they took to the field after having a 15 minute break.

The game was extremely tight, but during a period of sustained Pershore pressure, Sarah popped into the Pershore line with a great interception and ran the length of the field for a great individual try.

The Ross defence held firm to wrap a great victory 1-0 and an overall tournament, finishing in second place.

It was a great result and something the team are all very proud of. The ladies player of the tournament was Helen Taylor-Davies for her excellent running lines and her impressive five try haul.