Impressive performance from Oban Lorne ladies
ON A DRIZZLY, grey day a slightly diminished Oban side turned out to take on their main competitors at the top of BT Women’s National League 2, Grangemouth Stagettes, at home. With their captain and vice-captain unavailable, the Oban side were led by last games’ player of the match Veronica Speirse who captained the team for the first time. Missing players meant the match started with uncontested scrums.
Oban kicked to start, and followed this up with some dominant play, particularly strong ball carrying from the forwards allowing prop Ellie MacNiven to score within the opening minutes. After some strong tackles and Grangemouth errors, an Oban scrum on the half-way line allowed outside centre Erika Skofca to burst through the Grangemouth defence before offloading to winger Ellen Barlow to score under the posts.
The home side continued to challenge the visitors and a well-executed lineout allowed scrum-half Audrey Barr to ship the ball wide. A clever link by Skofca allowed inside centre Kelly Lamont an attempt at the try line, before popping the ball to winger Rachel MacDonald who sealed the team’s third try of the game. This brought the score to 21-0 after just 15 minutes. Oban continued the pressure on Grangemouth’s five-metre line but the team in red maintained a good defensive line and repeatedly drove the Green Army back. Number 8 Camilla Leslie eventually burst over the line with great support from fellow forwards. A knock-on by green meant a Grangemouth scrum in the Oban half, with the visiting team looking dangerous for the first time as the ball was eventually held up over the line.
With slippery conditions, the game was spattered with knock-ons and messy play by both sides, with an Oban scrum resulting in a second try for Barlow under posts. This was shortly followed by another try, this time following a convincing piece of individual running by Lamont. The Oban forwards were taking the ball forward into relentless Grangemouth tackles, who continued to challenge Oban throughout, before the ball was taken on by fly-half Lucy Stewart up half the pitch for a try. This brought the half-time score to 49-0, with all successful conversions also taken by Stewart. The majority of the game until now had been played in the Grangemouth half but the reds kept a good defence throughout and made Oban work for their points.
With the start of the second half Grangemouth came out with a renewed vengeance. Oban retaliated, however, with fullback Howdo Bean taking the ball out to the wing before passing to Stewart for her second try. From here the referee’s decisions were not favouring the girls in green, with repeated errors including high tackles, knock-ons and forward passes being called. This meant that despite their dominance they were unable to make much ground. Using the full capa- bilities of their ball-handling skills, the backs were able to swing right from one wing to the other, and a carefully timed offload from Skofca allowed Lamont to shrug off tackles and score her second try under the posts. With the conversion for this try and 20 minutes of play still to go the referee unexpectedly blew his whistle for full-time at the Grangemouth coach’s request. This meant the final score was 68-0 to the home team, maintaining their winning streak and yet to concede any points in the league thus far.
Oban ladies protect their position at the top of league and will take on Lismore at home next Sunday October 15 at 2pm. All support is greatly appreciated. The team trains on Tuesdays and Thursdays 6pm-7pm at Glencruitten. No prior experience necessary.