There will be a brief match report I promise, as we did play some rugby on Sunday, but this is about the weekend, and the first all girls section tour for the club, with 115 players, parents and coaches descending on a caravan site in Somerset on Friday evening for a couple of days of fun and rugby.

I’m not entirely sure what the other weekend residents of the site thought as we bit by bit appeared in RJ’s clubhouse, resplendent in our Hawaiian shirts, leis and garlands, but it was clear from the start that a fun weekend was going to be had by all. With the girls at the forefront Imogen took to the stage to win the hula hooping competition, before the Freddie Mercury tribute act had us all transfixed by his majestic talent! While the parents continued to socialise the girls were clearly not as impressed with Freddie and all disappeared back to now infamous ‘caravan 918’ where Clifford the 6 foot caterpillar put in an appearance, before a number of the girls decided the quiet of the caravan next door (mine) was more to their liking, only to manage to jam the bathroom door, locking themselves in whilst trying to apply purple facepacks to themselves. A fine sight they were abseiling from bathroom window and scurrying back to the sanctuary of 918.

Saturday morning came and one parent braved swimming with 53 of the kids and a blow up flamingo before we all departed on the coaches to Sandy Park for Exeter Chiefs Ladies vs. Loughborough Lightning, a game in which Exeter came out on top and the girls got photos with some of the players including England internationals Sarah Hunter, Claudia Macdonald and Sadia Kabeya, who all donned the girls pink tour sunglasses for the shots.

Back at the campsite later in the evening fun and frolics were had at the full tour dinner, where girls from the U14s competed in I’m A Celebrity style eating challenges, a highlight being Sophie demolishing a full pack of twiglets in about 30 seconds! 918, aka the party caravan was then in full swing and I can’t confirm or deny that one of the coaches was caught showing of his best dad dance moves in the early hours.

Sunday came, and caravans were cleared and hearty breakfasts were consumed before we travelled to Winscombe RFC where we played a round robin of games with the host club and Walcats RFC. Those two teams featured first with Winscombe running out winners before our girls took to the field to take on Walcats.

In an evenly contested game it was Las Bams who got on the scoresheet first with Elizabeth crossing in the right hand corner for her first try this season. What was great was seeing how happy the other girls were for her as she had only recently commented that she was frustrated at not scoring a try this year, with Darcy hugging her all the way back to the halfway line. Walcats quickly struck back with try of their own, but with both conversions missed the score remained even at 5-5.

Las Bams then put a good spell of attacking rugby together, with some crisp passing helping Elle to cross in the same corner Elizabeth did, and Molly then following up with an excellent individual try which she also converted, to give us a 17-5 lead. Walcats then came back with another try before Lily rounded of the try scoring to give us a 22-10 win.

With no real time between games the girls then faced the hosts, who proved to be far to strong and organised, as you would expect from a team who have reached national finals, and only committed defence from all of the girls kept the score respectable.

In the end this weekend wasn’t all about the results, it was about the fun, friendship and forged bonds between the girls being strengthen. The real winner was the Bracknell Rugby Club girls sections, with a hugely successful inaugural tour.