For the second round of sevens, the Dundee junior Valkyries revisited Perthshire rugby club for the fourth time this season! Thanks to an incredible turn out, we started the day by splitting the girls into two groups. The feeling was that this gave everyone the chance to get as much game time as possible and to allow some of the quieter players to step up. Coaches Owen and Martin were in agreement that they got exactly what we asked for from the players as they viewed some of the best rugby all season from both squads.
All in all, there were four teams, Stirling County, Perthshire/Strathmore and the two teams from Dundee. We were also joined by three players from the Kelpies.
The two Dundee teams started the day with a warm up match against each other in order to help get the shoulders ready for some contact and the hands ready for some… handling! After a good five minute run around the two teams split and our first squad took the field against Stirling County. Last week Stirling beat Dundee to be victors at the Glenrothes leg of the sevens. They prevailed in this first game but there were some fantastic scores and amazing running.
Our second squad took the field against Perthshire and secured our first win with some fantastically physical rugby. Straight running and strong defence gave the mini-Valkyries multiple opportunities to counter. Perthshire were able to demonstrate the speed they had on the wings but it wasn’t enough to counteract the Valkyries who won with some scores to spare.
Perthshire stayed on the pitch to face off against our other Valkyries team and were clearly keen to set the record straight! Despite some strong defence from the girls, captained fantastically by Myfi, Perthshire’s speed proved too much.
A place in the final awaited the winner of the next match as our next Valkyries team took to the field against last week’s champion’s Stirling. It was a cracking game, which went the way of the Valkyries by two scores in the end. Special mention must go to Cheryl from the Kelpies who took an incredible one-handed catch on her way to scoring the try of the game.
This left a Valkyries team contesting for both pieces of silverware. One in the cup final and one in the plate final. The decision was made to increase the size of the pitch for the finals to better mirror a sevens experience, rather than the festival sized pitches that we had been playing on for the day.
In the first game, the Valkyries faced off against Stirling county and the extra space on the pitch certainly helped last week’s winners. Despite, this the Valkyries team never gave up and did themselves proud with a particularly fine try from Caitlin who had shaken off a twisted ankle from the earlier game to run the length of the field!
In the cup final, Perthshire took full advantage of the additional space in the first half, feeding their excellent wingers and taking a 5-1 lead into half time. In the second half, the Valkyries really came to life scoring 4 trys. Unfortunately, the final score for Perthshire proved decisive and the home team were over the moon to take the win at their home tournament 6-5. The girls should be very proud, however, as the second half was a truly magnificent effort.
All in all, a great day of rugby with amazing skills and bravery shown by every single player. It’s a true testament to the dedication of the girls and their parents that we had enough players to not only split into two teams, but for both teams to be highly competitive in each of their games. A number of girls took huge strides when given responsibility and this can only bode well for the last sevens tournament next week in Stirling.
A huge shout out to our wonderful travelling supporters who, as always, made sure the girls knew they were there!
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