We go again at Henley…

Click the link for a look at the programme. Programme 14 May

Tonight we have the Vets finals @OxfordQuins.

There will be some great rugby played and apparently the last rugby outings for some (they’ll be back… there is another vets cup next year).

For an early view of the programme click here .

In a tough competition of over 80 girls the following have been selected for county action. Congratulations to all of the names below and a huge thank you to everyone who took part in selection.

Please click the link below to read the programme for the delayed 2020 County Shield final being played at Iffley Road.

Saturday 23rd April 2022 at 12:00.

Tickets £5 (concessions £3 and U12s £1).

County Shield Programme 2022

The somewhat delayed 2020 county shield final will be held at the Oxford University Rugby Club, Iffley Road on Saturday 23^rd April 2022 with a 12.00 noon kick off.

The finalists are: Alchester RFC v Chipping Norton RFC

There will be an entrance fee for Spectators.

Adults: £5

Concessions: £3

Under 12s:  £1

We are delighted to announce yet more county action. This time the VETS finals.

These will be held at Oxford Harlequins on Wednesday 27th April (no entry fee).

The U14/U14 Boys finals will be held at Oxford Harlequins on Sunday 24th April. The times for each match are as below.

Congratulations for all teams reaching their respective finals.

U14 Boys

U15s Boys

Oxfordshire Girls U18 v Dorset & Wiltshire 

Faringdon Rugby Club 

Sunday 03^rd April 2022 – Kick Off 15:00  

What a day for Girls Rugby in Oxfordshire. We saw over 100 Girls playing at one place throughout the day. The first game saw Wallingford U15 play in the plate against Banbury & Bicester with Wallingford coming out the winners in a fiercely contested encounter. Congratulations to Wallingford on their 30 v 10 victory. The second game saw Gosford All Blacks U15 take on Chinnor in the U15 Girls Cup. Another fantastic encounter with GAB coming away as 38 v 12 winners.

Oxfordshire Girls U18 Match Day Squad

17 C Merry-Taylor (Banbury), 2 K Harrison (capt GAB), 3 A Dulson-Ormsby (Chinnor), 4 O Roberts (Chinnor), 5 L Carpenter (GAB), 6 J Mallaghan (GAB), 7 S Mulleson-Hull (GAB), 8 S Warwick (VC – GAB), 9 E Page (Banbury), 10 S Walters (GAB), 23 A Miller (Chinnor), 12 R Fincken (Chinnor), 13 P Tabuadua (GAB), 14 G Baxter (GAB), 15 H Newhouse (GAB), 16 L Olliffe (GAB), 1 A Greatbatch (Banbury), 18 F McGinlay (VC – GAB), 19 A Crindland (Bicester), 20 N Harris (Chinnor), 21 L Sammons (GAB), 22 C Kemp (Bicester), 24 I Ormrod (GAB).

Missing through illness/injury – C Cooke (GAB), A Dinsey (GAB), G Turner (Bicester), D Turner (Banbury), M Allen (GAB) and E Dwyer (Banbury)

This was a wonderful advert for Girls Rugby with fast, free flowing rugby from both sides. The game started and there were a number of huge tackles put in, with Warwick, Tabuabua and Page leading the way. Walters was controlling the game at fly half with a number of slick backs moves which almost resulted in trys, following lovely hands with Fincken at Inside Centre.

Dorset & Wiltshire then struck on approximately 15 minutes following a turnover inside the 22, this led to slick hands and them scoring a converted try under the posts. This was their first venture into the Oxfordshire half.

Oxfordshire went back to basics and started to get the upper hand in the forwards, particularly at scrum time, with captain Harrison playing at hooker taking 3 balls against the head. Merry-Taylor and Dulson-Ormsby both scrummaged particularly well.

Sammons, Olliffe and McGinlay were introduced after 20 minutes for Roberts, Mulleson-Hull and Page, and Sammons immediately made an impact, snipping from the breakdown, to sprint away and score a lovely individual try. Lots of good interplay and strong play from Harrison, McGinlay, Dulson-Ormsby and the excellent Mallaghan led to a sustained period of pressure. Great counter rucking in the Dorset & Wiltshire 22  from Carpenter and Warwick led to Olliffe pouncing on a loose ball to dive over the line.

The 1^st half ended Oxfordshire 10 v Dorset & Wiltshire 7.

A few more changes were made at half time with Greatbatch coming on for Merry-Taylor, Crindland for Carpenter, Harris for Mallaghan, Taylor for Miller and Ormrod for Baxter. However the Oxfordshire dominance in the scrum continued with Greatbatch in –particular really scrummaging well against her opposite number. Olliffe was a constant threat at the breakdown, and with Warwick won several important turnovers and penalties just as Dorset & Wiltshire began to get a foothold in the game. Tabuadua was always making ground in every carry which led to Dorset & Wiltshire having to double up defensively against her. Walters and Fincken exploited this with some lovely hands and carries between them.

Oxfordshire started to make real progress down the right hand side and went through a period of 5 minutes that proved crucial with two quick scores. Firstly Ormrod received the ball in space and showed excellent pace to step and out pace the defence to score a wonderful try after great hands from Walters, Fincken and Tabuadua put her into space. Then with a huge step and run from McGinlay leading to a 40 metre sprint down the right wing. Oxfordshire continued to recycle the ball as they worked toward the Dorset & Wiltshire posts, McGinlay again with a crucial carry and amazing offload handing to Dulson-Ormsby who carried on and scored under the posts. Walters added the extra to make it 22 v 7.

In the final 15 minutes Dorset & Wiltshire came back strongly, and scored 2 well taken try’s, one of which were converted taking the score to 22 v 19. Oxfordshire had to rely on the outstanding Newhouse at Full Back to make two crucial try saving tackles in the dying minutes inside the 22 in one v one scenarios. The final whistle went with Oxfordshire just edging a fiercely contested encounter 22 v 19.

Tackle of the match  

This was really close between Fincken’s outstanding tackle on the halfway line forcing the winger into touch when it looked like she was clear and Newhouse 1 v 1 tackle in the last 5 minutes. Newhouse just pipping it due to the lateness in the game.

Players of the Match 

D & W Pick – Tabuadua

Oxfordshire Coaches Pick – Dulson-Ormsby

Next Match – Sunday 17^th April away to Gloucestershire at Cheltenham Tigers AGP.

Shane Harrison

Wallingford RFC Director of Rugby

IRFU Irish Exiles Regional Lead

Oxfordshire RFU Girls U18 Head Coach

After a cracking U13s final at Gosford on Sunday (where Didcot/GAB beat Banbury/Bicester) we now move to Faringdon Rugby Club on Sunday 3rd April for our biggest ever day of girls rugby.

• We start with our first ever U15s Girls Plate final at 11:00 between Bicester/Banbury and Wallingford.

• We continue with our first ever U15s County cup final at 12:00 where Chinnor will play GAB.

• If that wasn’t enough rugby we then have the U18s intercounty match between Oxfordshire and Dorset & Wiltshire at 15:00.

Interested in girls rugby? Come along and watch.

Girls rugby is moving forward at pace in the county and the U15s have tier assessment days for selection to the county squad starting the following weekend.

Thanks to Shane Harrison (@PorthKy) for this great poster.

Oxfordshire RFU Girls U18 kicked off their first of three matches with an away match against Buckinghamshire RFU at Aylesbury on their Artificial Grass Pitch. It was a fiercely contested match with some fantastic free flowing rugby on display from both teams.

In the early stages Oxfordshire, who were captained by Sophie Warwick (Gosford All Blacks), dominated possession and territory. This was down to some aggressive tackling and rucking from the Oxfordshire players, with Open Side Flanker Lily Olliffee (GAB) and Inside Centre Paulini Tabuadua(GAB) leading the way. Fly Half Ruby Fincken (Chinnor) also showed excellence awareness at the breakdown, with 2 first half turnovers.

The story of the first half in-particular was the dominance of the Oxfordshire scrum. Oxfordshire won a number of scrum penalties and took 2 against the head after great hooking from Milly Dinsey (GAB), along with some really strong scrummaging by fellow front rowers Aisling Dulson-Ormsby (Chinnor) and Cady Cooke (GAB).

The 1^st try came from a great defensive effort and a huge hit by Tabuadua and then great turnover from Olliffe inside our 22, then some lovely hands from the backs the ball ended up with Hannah Newhouse (GAB) inside our 22. The centre showed excellent strength to ride the initial tackle, and then fantastic footwork to put her into space, she then showed excellent acceleration to sprint through the defence and run 80+ meters to score under the posts. Lucia Sammons added the extras.  The 1^st half finished 0 v 7 to Oxfordshire, however we lost influential Tight Head Prop Cooke to a nasty ankle injury at the end of the 1^st half.

The second half saw a number of changes at half time from both teams. The opening minutes were fiercely contested, but Buckinghamshire managed to create space on the right wing and scored three quick try’s, one of which was a penalty try, to take a 19 v 7 lead.

Alice Millar (Chinnor) showed lots of pace in both attack and defence, and Fincken showed great distribution to release the outside backs who made strong carries in the centre third of the pitch.  Oxfordshire played some strong rugby, leading to a period of pressure inside Buckinghamshire’s 22. Several penalties were awarded, and Oxfordshire got their rewards for the pressure with a  lovely strong carry from Dulson-Ormsby resulting in her touching down for a well deserved try. This made the score 19 v 12.

The final word however was that of Buckinghamshire who scored a lovely team try which concluded the scoring with them coming out 26 v 12 winners in a really competitive game that was a fantastic advert for representative rugby.

There were some really strong performances from the Oxfordshire Team. With Warwick leading the side strongly ably supported by Freya McGinlay (GAB) who stood up to show her Leadership when needed.

Oxfordshire Players of the Match

Coaches Choice – Lily Olliffe

Buckinghamshire’s Choice – Hannah Newhouse

Squad

1 – Aisling Dulson-Omsby (Chinnor), 2 – Milly Dinsey (GAB), 3 – Cady Cooke (GAB), 4 – Freya McGinlay (GAB), 5 – Orlagh Roberts (Chinnor), 6 – Natasha Harris (Chinnor), 7 – Lily Olliffe (GAB), 8 – Sophie Warwick (capt GAB), 9 – Lucia, 10 – Ruby Fincken (Chinnor), 11 – Grace Turner (Bicester), 12 – Paulini Tabuadua (GAB), 13 – Hannah Newhouse (GAB), 14 – Isla Ormrod (GAB), 15 – Dylan Turner (Banbury), 16 – Scarlett Malleson-Hull (GAB), 17 – Chloe Merry-Taylor (Banbury), 18 – Lily-May Carpenter (GAB), 19 – Alice Crindland (Bicester), 20 – Jess Mallaghan (GAB), 21 – Poppy Tyrell (Wallingford), 22 Eleanor Page (Banbury), 23 – Charlotte Kemp (Bicester), 24 – Alice Millar (Chinnor)

Coaches

Head Coach – Shane Harrison (Wallingford)

Coaches – Dominee Sewell (Chinnor), Al Scott (GAB), David Norris (Faringdon), Storm Dinsey (GAB/Grove – Team Manager)