HillJills welcomed Kirkcaldy to Fortress Hughenden for their first outing of the ‘09/’10 season. Banter had been high, training had been good, and the girls were raring to go. This season sees the introduction of co-coach Chris Reid who’s giving us some of his time to marshall the backs. Show-pony’s have consequently been looking strong, and expecting a lot of ball…greedy besoms. So, excitement all round, with some chooooooons on the changing rooms, the ladies were getting set for a big day. Then came the news that Kirkcaldy in an act of early season “special”ness had sent a veritable netball squad of 12 players…12? You’re havin’ a Giraffe! We hear you say, but no. 12 it was. So 15 v 12. No mercy in premier rugby, this being the team who cost us the league last year with an early season loss at Kirkcaldy, they can’t be discounted, we took to the pitch. Blooding a few newbies, and with a return to the field from some injured’s Hill-Jills were set, and Kirkcaldy’s faffing wasn’t going to get in the way.
Out we went, secured a bonus in the first quarter, backs were looking good, but still needing a bit of tightening up, forwards were solid but again need to sharpen up a bit for the tougher opposition to come. All round we played well, some ridiculous solo runs from kick-offs discounted the team played well, Kirkcaldy put up a decent defence in the middle, but were no match for our extra ladies out wide. We played some expansive rugby, the rach’n'jooolz show at 9/10 ruled the game, just the way we like it, directing play and creating some magic, Moggs and little Pup showed some blistering pace on the wings, the face of things to come hopefully, the back row were dynamic in the loose as ever with Dawg leading from 8, getting her bosh on. Hazel looked dangerous from 15, and kicked a good few conversions. Kezza’s wee kicking feet’ll have to do something magic to keep a hold of kicking duties…
Chosen one of the week, a first for this season, goes to Rachy Nic at scrum-half, who ran the show, kept the forwards in line and had some decent distribution for our running backs. We’re raising the bar this year, setting it high, there is a lot more to come from the HillJills crew.
A decent crowd turned out to cheer the ladies on, unfortunately not quite the show of rugby we’d hoped for, the game was cut short at 60 mins, Kirkcaldy seemed to lose interest towards the end, and HillJills recorded their first league win, 78-0, not the best of circumstances but a good win nonetheless, and a warm-up for the Glasgow derby this week as Cartha come to Fortress Hughenden…we shall see what is to come. Excitement is building in the HillJills camp, with great competition for places everyone has a point to prove if they want to be starting from here on in…notable absence of Kitchener next week sees Chris Reid taking the reigns, the first time he’ll see the ladies play, so some Hillhead magic at Fortress Hughenden, this Sunday 2pm KO. All the cool kids are going…
