Today's PUP at Stoke RUFC saw the girls play 5 games against Stoke, Burton, Stafford, Tamworth and Market Drayton. Each game was very different in nature and the girls adapted excellently. The team played some of their very best rugby to front up against some powerful opposition. During the afternoon's matchplay, we saw some amazing kick offs with plenty of hang time for players to get up field; we saw some strong tackling with a sheer determination to bring the opposition down; we saw some fantastic rucking both to protect our own ball, but also win it back; the handling was however the highlight of the day. The last few weeks' of training has been spent focussing on drawing defenders and releasing team mates into space and we saw that today on a number of occasions. The teamwork was great to see and shows all the hard work put in over the course of the season. We saw plenty of tries as well. A great afternoon of rugby.

Amelia's energy levels remained high throughout and continued her mazy runs to find space where there didn't appear to be any. Eveie won some great possession with her counter-rucking which is getting better week on week and was her usual strong self in attack. She also didn't give up and saved a certain try in the final minute of the final game. Megan led the pressure in defence by getting off the line quickly and making some great tackles. Caitlin had another great week with the ball in hand and made yet more amazing catches from kick offs. Molly was everywhere on the pitch in support of the team and helped bring down some opposition players. Freya was everywhere on the pitch today but most notably sprinted half the pitch to make a try-saving tackle. Tori was as strong throughout as normal and broke the opponent lines on more than one occasion and made an excellent pop pass from the ground. Elyza's confidence continues to grow, and she took part in her first scrums this week. This week's Player of the PUP was Phoebe. She continued to win most of her scrums, set up Caitlin to score and did an amazing side-step to break through to score herself.

Thank you again to everyone for bringing the girls to Stoke to allow them to take part. An additional thank you to our unofficial photographer Thomas for his efforts to get as many action photos as possible.

Finally, well done to the U14s in their success in the County Cup. An amazing achievement!