Millwall Venus XV

19th November 2006

Millwall Venus Fullerians

Match report by Jodie Botha

Millwall Tries

Jo Richardson (2), Maryke Botha

A game that was tagged imminently winnable by the team manager should not really have ended with that kind of score line. On the plus side our three tries plus the three or so that were disallowed show our increased desire to get over the line. Especially with my own attempt to end my reign as most capped player never to have scored with a sneaky take the ball off Antonia and dive snappily over to ground the ball squarely on the line which was ruled out (reminiscent of the springboks disallowed try by the corner flag).

Unfortunately that is really the only consolation from a game in which we allowed ourselves to be bullied by a bunch of children. The Fullerians turned up in good time but decided to hide in the changing rooms (poor darlings were upset about the drive down oh and the walk from the pitch to the changing rooms). Ten minutes to kick off and they presumably were all removing their braces to make space for their gum shields as they were nowhere to be seen. Still as we frolicked in the gorgeous late Autumn sunshine we remained strangely optimistic and the presence of supporters also added a special little magic (don't think the lack of support from the lads hasn't been noticed, especially taking into account my own high level of attendance at their matches).

This is all besides the point as supporters or not we still would have lost out. The main problem was that Millwall decided that it would be lovely day to watch a match not play one. As soon as the opposition had some ball we all very helpfully stood back and watched respectfully as they passed the ball amongst themselves. We managed to get in some good mauling work but sadly against a bigger or more competent team our hesitancy and WATCHING OUR PLAYER TAKE IT IN AND NOT BOTHER TO SUPPORT HER would have been badly shown up.

The first couple of tries from Fullerians exposed our weakness in defence and the breakthrough came with a fabulous fatty Venus try from our new penalty move (who would have thought it, we actually learned and applied something from training!). Would love to tell you who it was but as I had bravely sacrificed myself under a pile of the opposition in a very controlled crash ball I couldn't see it. The other thing that stemmed the flow of points from the opposition was the world's most crunching tackle from Nicole which inspired us all to try and do the same. This girl continues to impress in each match and again made the kind of attacking runs that will surely see her challenge Toni Cummins for leading try scorer by the end of the season.

Half time brought an unfortunate yellow carding for Trudie, this was followed rapidly with the first part of the second half seeing her briefly return before being red carded for another unfortunate incident. While it was highly regrettable (at least she began walking before the edam slice surfaced) again it was her passion that got the better of her and sorry to say there was precious little of that from the rest of the team.

I was again denied a chance to get myself a try when I tried to aide Jo in placing the ball over the top of the try line pile up. The ref blew up and took it back for a five meter scrum. Luckily Jo was able to claim her try a few minutes later after a determined bit of play. We thought that we were within sniffing distance of a victory and then we went to sleep and let the Fullerians run a few trys out wide despite my brave run to chase the winger down while calling “I'm coming for you bitch!” which apparently was not textbook stuff and earned a stiff reprieve from the ref, but then these lower level refs never appreciate an innovative approach to the game. If only Steve Walsh had been officiating, I'm sure I'd have been rewarded with a spell in the sin bin with a good old fashioned physical reprimand….. Sorry I digress, I'll keep that thought for my Santa wish list.

Anyway the catalogue of missed tackles and lack of commitment made the score line a great deal worse than it should have been and hopefully a lot of things will be addressed between now and January. Mainly the poor efforts of the once fine pack. The backs cannot be expected to stay out the way if the forwards can't be bothered to get there and do their job. Not sure why we are reluctant to do it as despite the “evil 13” from the opposition crunching us I managed to wallop her and make her whine at a ruck. It ain't hard and I ain't big so why aren't we all doing it?

The 100 year game ended in the fading light and we all thankfully decamped from the battlefield weary and exhausted. Luckily we only have one more game before Christmas, sadly this is against Basildon who have been happily hammering the other teams on our league. Even worse than that, it's next week. Anyway congrats to Jo who took advantage of Toni's absence to chase her in the points table and also to Maryke who scored her first try for the club.

Click here to read the match reports from last season