Superhands v Glasgow Lions friendly, Sunday 17 March 2010
A cool but bright morning welcomed the Superhands squad, consisting of newbies Jen, Sule, Gillian and Steve as well as old hands Ali, Freshy, Lesley-Anne, Jo, Jenny, Eleanor, Rob, Fran and Doug and coach Pierre, to Glasgow Green for their first outing against another team in 2010.
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The whistle blew to start the first mixed game and the Superhands quickly settled into the curves driving pattern they had been practising through the winter on the astroturf at George Watson’s College. Moving into slider opened up some gaps and it wasn’t long before Rob started to rack up a few scores with support from various players, demonstrating the clear benefits of his many weeks of kettlebells training. The Lions fought back with strong driving and repeatedly pressurised the line eventually taking advantage of a turnover in the visitors half to score. Recent recruit Steve’s efforts were rewarded with a fine touchdown and in the final play of the game on touch five Doug ran a dummy switch and nipped through to make it 7-1.
Next up were the girls, dubbed the ‘Superhens’, playing together for the first ever time. The Lions were fielding a female player who looked strangely familiar – was her name Victoria? In any case any first time nerves were quickly overcome as they confidently drove up the middle of the pitch, once again the good handling giving them control of much of the game. With great chat from Eleanor on the wing and loud calls of ‘shortside’ from Sule, the defence held firm against repeated attacks. Eventually the slick driving wore down the Lionesses’ defence and Jo popped the ball up off the ground to Ali who, with a side-to-side salsa shimmy slipped through between the defensive mids, running half the length of the pitch to score. The remainder of the game was exciting end-to-end stuff but neither team managed to break through, and the score remained 1-0. It was a well-deserved first victory for the hardworking ladies from Edinburgh.
The Lions were clearly keen to do better in the second mixed game and were stronger both in attack and defence. Despite legs and minds that were beginning to tire the Superhands followed their gameplan well and worked hard to keep a clean scoresheet. Eventually though the Lions’ persistence paid off and the Superhands were caught offside. Kieran seized the opportunity, scooped and broke through over the line and in the scramble that ensued, found Sinead who was judged by the ref to have (probably) got the ball to ground before being touched. The Lions continued to threaten throughout the game with John seeming to find some extra space on the wing and looked certain to score. However, Doug gave chase and at the last moment made a diving touch to prevent the home side getting another touchdown. In the end scores by Rob and Ali and a particularly impressive first touchdown from Jen diving over on receiving a pass from Steve who had scooped to break through the Lions’ line left the total at 3-1.
In the final analysis, as Pierre was very pleased to point out, the Superhands’ success was largely down to good handling resulting in a high touch count per play. The girls especially enjoyed their first outing together and all in all it was a good day that rewarded everyone’s hard work over the winter months.
If indeed anyone considered it, at least they didn’t mention that if the women were to be the Superhens then the men would have to be the Superc…