The U18 girls have had a challenging year with squad numbers, an issue that many teams have shared this season. Throughout the second half of the year, Chesham U18 girls have joined us in most of our fixtures, fitting in to the squad well and ensuring as many players as possible could play 15s. It was only right then that they join us on tour.

We all departed Fullerians on Saturday morning for Bristol stopping to solve an escape room on the way with some groups escaping faster than others. Once in Bristol, the squad relaxed, swam and had dinner.

The following morning we set off to Chipping Sodbury to play a Barbars team made up primarily of Chipping Sodbury and Chippenham, arriving to sunshine and rather windy conditions. We also met an ex Fullerian who had moved away but came and joined us to put the shirt on one more time.

We were playing into the wind for the first half, a wind that stopped kicks in mid air and sent them back to the kicker but we battled on and for 15 mins there was no score. The Barbars then put 2 tries down but we pushed through with Maisie scoring and the ball being held up over the try line to bring us back to 14-5 at half time. The second half we had the wind behind us and the squad continued to perform well with 2 tries from Jess and Maisie, Amelia converting 2. #

However, it became apparent that the run out that some of the Barbars had had for the Bristol Bears on Friday night hadn't taken too much out of them... and although they were also held up over the try line, we finished 43-29 to the Barbars. We couldn't have been made more welcome, being presented with a plate to commemorate the match in a fabulous show of rugby solidarity.

It was a cracking game of rugby. The squad has had to put up with difficulties with numbers and getting used to playing with each other with not many fixtures on the list. On Sunday they added yet another player to the mix and went out and put in a shift against a tough opposition with strong performances all round. They can hold their heads up high as we look forward to the league finals on 21st April being hosted at Fullers.