First union try!

By Frank Stormont
February 1 2009

Leanne Odendaal, who has only attended a few rugby union training seasons, started the ball rolling for Plymouth Albion Ladies in their 17 - 10 win over second placed Saracens II.  

Leanne Odendaal, who has only attended a few rugby union training seasons, started the ball rolling for Plymouth Albion Ladies in their 17 - 10 win over second placed Saracens II. Leanne has been working as a Maths and PE teacher at Plymouth College for the past 5 years. Two years ago she gained a place in the South African touch rugby squad for the but travelling backwards and forwards made it difficult and she did not make the final selection to play.

After a chance encounter Odendaal joined up with Albion and has attended 4 training sessions with only one of these being of full contact. She said that the thrill of scoring her try was better than any other sporting moment she has experienced. Playing on the right wing Leanne admits that a lot of her touch rugby skills play a big part in her success but the match left her sore.

Also representing South Africa at hockey this double international representative is not looking at extending and playing rugby union for her country but is looking at running a girls side at Plymouth College in the near future. 

Coming off the back of a significant loss against 2nd from bottom Hove the previous week there were not many that would have expected a win for the home side. Saracens travelled down on the day and looked good in warm up as their 2nd place in Championship South would expect. Once the home side started they took control of the game and the Albion support were pleasantly surprised with the teams performance.

Just 5 minutes into the match a flat handed move from left to right wing allowed Leanne to use the space and run around to put the ball down with plenty of space. With the extras added by Nancy Stone.

Terri Cormack scored Albion's second try mid may through the half when she took the ball off the back of the scrum to put the ball down in the corner. The conversion went under the posts but it did not matter the hosts had their confidence. 

Saracens got their first three points in the 50th minute of the first half when Albion were penalised in front of their own posts. The visitors did raise their game in the second half but Albion still seemed in control.

Late in the second half it looked as though the score line had frozen until Georgie Rozario picked up the ball from the back of the breakdown deep in her own half and ran the 65 metres dodging three defenders to touch down in the right hand corner.

With the match getting scrappy and some tempers being raised on both sides the visitors made full use of an overlap on the left to run in a converted try. Being the last play of the match making the score line more flattering for the visitors than the match as a whole warranted.

Head coach Gavin Boak, "Big Gav", was delighted with the result and glad that the team had finally put another win on the books. He did not have much to say to the players after the match as their performance was the only praise that was needed. Gav was reported in this paper last week as saying that Albion had the ability to beat any team in the league and this result just proves that this was the case.

Albion's next fixture will be the rearranged home match against Southampton based Trojans on 22nd of this month. Despite the win against Saracens Albion will still need to record at least two more wins to guarantee their position in the league next season. 

Photos

Odendaal wings it for Albion

Discussion started by Unofficial Plymouth Albion (IP Logged), 01/02/2009 14:00

Unofficial Plymouth Albion
01/02/2009 14:00

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