Macclesfield travelled to Chorley with a full squad of u14s players and Megan Copper who was “loaned” to Widnes u12s for the day.
Opening with a game against their old foes Shevington Sharks, Macclesfield went behind to an early try. The Ligers were not deterred by this set back. The ball was moved through hands allowing Abi Hargreaves who scored in the corner. Erica Wood then brushed aside would be tacklers to barge over the try line. Unfortunately, the Sharks hit back with three tries to win 4-2.
Against Chorley the girls put up a spirited performance against an experienced team. Pleasingly, Ellie Sneesby began to make some darting runs from dummy half bringing centres Rachael Marriot and Alice Carden into the game. A cross field kick by Abi Hargreaves was caught by Annabel Malkin who was bundled into touch just short of the line. Despite the defensive efforts of the whole team the Panthers ran out the winners.
A true gauge of the girls’ development was against Blackpool Stanley. Like the Ligers, Blackpool are a new team to the festivals and the game was, in terms of result, a close affair. The Macc girls started strongly with captain Sandy Rushton breaking through the defence to set up a score for Erica Wood. Indeed Macclesfield were proving to be the stronger team with wave after wave of attacks. The reward was two further tries. One was a beautiful individual score by Rachael Marriot Two further scores by the girls were then disallowed. The Ligers, however, were then troubled by a Blackpool forward, who made three breaks which led to three scores making the final score 3-3.
After the efforts made in the Blackpool game, the girls were a spent force against the powerful Warrington Wolves who ran out the winners.
After two festivals the u14s now have 5 points. Megan Cooper deserves special mention whose contribution in the u12s now means the Ligers have 2 points in the u12s division.
U14s Team: Sandy Rushton (C) Abi Hargreaves, Rachael Marriot, Ellie Sneesby, Alice Carden, Erica Wood, Lisa Marley, Mollie Heywood, Annabel Malkin.
The girls teams are always looking for new players aged between 11 -15 coaching takes place every Tuesday (6.00 - 7.00) at Macclesfield RUFC. For more information contact the coach Ian Atkin i.atkin90@ntlworld.com or visit http://www.maccrugby.btik.com
