A group of U11 and U12 girls have come together from Lewes, Uckfield, Seaford, Chichester and Haywards Heath in order to play competitive rugby and, with minimal training together, the squad is starting to boss rugby on the pitch against experienced opposition.

So far, the Baabaas have run Horsham very close, learnt a lot from Tonbridge in a friendly, beat Pulborough away and on Sunday they put another team to the sword. Hove RFC has a well-deserved reputation for their strong girls and women’s rugby and they work incredibly hard with a sizeable squads, great coaches and the benefit of being able to hold regular mid-week and weekend training. Their group of young rugby players are clearly full of confidence and get on well together. It's a model that works. Luckily, for the mixed Club group of Baabaas this reputation did not daunt them on Sunday.

The girls came together before kick off and committed to support each other, work hard in the breakdown and protect the ball. The Baabaas were on the attack straight away although Hove had a good and effective defence. The Baabaas had to work hard to make ground, recycle and move the ball into space. It was a lesson in patient rugby management and the Baabaas took to it with ease. The support at the breakdown was effective, gain line after gain line was broken, with both teams committing everything in the ruck. It was, however, the Baabaas with the benefit of the slope who came away with the first try. A mele at the line, bodies piling in and the referees whistle blew and a smiling Barbarian player was at the bottom of the pile with a ball in hand, clearly grounded.

Hove elected to receive from the restart which gave the Baabaas the opportunity to pin them back. Hove were working hard to protect the ball and were doing incredibly well, when an opportunistic rip took the ball away from them and the Baabaas moved it through the hands for another score. For the first time in a match, the Baabaas coaches had allocated positions and the centre pairing were working incredibly well creating a break that resulted in another Baabaas try. The recycling at the ruck, the ripping of the ball, the pick and go was working, and that’s how the Baabaas finished the first half. They laid siege to the Hove line for a few minutes and broke through to score a fourth try and a healthy scoreline at the half time whistle, Baabaas 20 – Hove 0.

The second half started in similar fashion to the first. However, this time it wasn’t just pick and go, it was pick and go and pass-pass-pass. The backs were running angles which led to a proper backs move try. The ball had gone from the left-hand side, through the hands, to the right and another five points scored. And it didn’t end there. Hove went on the attack and through some fantastic handling made it in to the Baabaas ’22. The Baabaas defence held up and turned the ball over. A sublime kick turned Hove and they had to work hard to retain the ball due to the Baabaas constant pressure. The Baabaas turned the ball over once again and through some more direct attacks another try came taking the score to Baabaas 30 – Hove 0.

The game again ebbed and flowed and some handling errors on both sides meant that scrums were frequent. The Baabaas scrum-half wouldn’t let Hove get the ball away cleanly, she harried and harassed and it meant there was almost no scrum advantage to the Hove side on their ball. Backing her up was a team that simply pressured the opposition at every opportunity. Line breaks for Hove came after a lot of hard work, but were few and failed to result in a score. The Baabaas ripped the ball; they counter rucked; they supported; they tackled hard and overall put on an awesome team display.

The final try came from the Baabaas pressurising Hove in their ’22, putting them on the back foot. Suddenly one of the Baabaas smaller players received the ball, side-stepped a couple of Hove players and scored. Hove had worked hard and didn’t deserve the final scoreline but the Baabaas defence would not yield and won 35 -0.

Next Sunday the Baabaas host Worthing at Whitemans Green. Any girls interested in becoming part of the growing U12 and U14 squads at Heath should contact rugby@hhrfc.co.uk for more information.