Monsoon Toas VS Blacks Women's

A Rainbow on Our Side

On the cold, wet afternoon of 20 March 2010, the Blacks women’s team gathered at Turf City, Field 1, to meet, perhaps, the most feared women’s team in the entire Summer Touch League (STL) – Monsoon Toas.

With a shout of a cheer that some players claimed didn’t make sense, Captain Rachel and her starting 5 walked onto the field and took their positions, ready to face their opponents, the defending champion of the STL series.

And the whistle went off.

Monsoon Toas fielded their young and less experienced players to launch their first offence. As expected, their speed, level of intensity and movements were fast and lethal. The Blacks women’s team rose to the challenge and defended all the touches with great precision and ferocity. The wet weather conditions were a stumbling block for Monsoon Toas as they made far too many drops. Under the cat and dog weather, both teams defended and attacked relentlessly with every possession they had.

Alas, after more than 10 minutes, Alvinia supported an inside pass from Karen and dove onto the touchdown line to score the first touchdown of the game.

Unfortunate. But it didn’t matter.

Not wasting a single moment wallowing in self-pity and frustration, the Blacks women’s team summoned all their strength and courage to attack the opposition’s defence. A solid drive, which by the way should take place consistently in a game, brought the team to the 5m mark from their touchdown zone.

It was the perfect set-up. No room for hesitations. No room for bad hands.

No room for mistakes.

And then it happened.

Xueting, who recently returned from the NTL in Australia, received a pass from Wan, ran to the right, dragged her defender along, did her signature side-step to the left, hit the gap, drew the link defender, effectively creating a 3 v 2 situation, and passed the ball to Rachel who pounced onto the touchdown line, scoring the first crucial touchdown for the Blacks women’s team.

A sea of hands rose and waved at the substitution box. YEAH!

Monsoon Toas was swift to recover and scored their 2nd touchdown a couple of minutes later.

Half –time. The score was 2-1 to Monsoon Toas.

The rain had abated. Team confidence escalated in the team. A quick half-time brief to tighten the team’s defence and sharpen the attack.

Time to head back to the field.

The Blacks women’s team took on the seasoned players who replaced the younger players as the starting 6.

Eunice Chu, one of the players with the higher work rate in the team was, unfortunately, sent off to sin-bin for 2 minutes and the team’s defence was put under duress. With 5 defenders warding off 6 ravenous Monsoon players who prowled on every gap and weak link in their sight, the scene was not for the weak-hearted. A brief lapse of concentration and communication in the defence led to a touchdown by Karen.

Drats. Hard luck.

The score was 3 – 1 to Monsoon Toas. The Blacks team did not give up and continued the uphill battle of breaking the opposition’s defence.

On a dummy break off a clean dump, Jazreel blazed past the defenders, swerved to the left and off a 2 v 1 situation, made a flat pass to winger, mighty Helena, who came in from a good depth, caught the ball, stormed down the field along the sideline, flew (she really flew) into the touchdown zone, plant the ball in the zone before sliding past the end zone, displacing a cone in the process.

It was such a momentous touchdown. I don’t suppose neither the team nor Helena would ever forget that touchdown. Good job, Jazreel and Helena.

The score was 3 -2. Spurred on by the inspirational touchdown by Helena, the team worked even harder.

At about the 33rd minute, 10 meters away from our touchdown line, on offence, Jazreel deftly stepped past a defender and once again, whizzed past other defenders to score the equaliser.

The score was 3 -3.Cheers erupted at the substitution box and the same thought flashed across everyone’s mind.

“Please blow the whistle and let it be full –time.”

No such luck.

Perhaps due to fatigue and diminished focus, the team’s drives slackened considerably and on numerous occasions, it was not able to bring the ball into the opponent’s half. That proved to be a deadly mistake as the team had to defend Monsoon’s aggressive onslaught in the red zone.

A blunder at the substitution box caused another player, Eunice Lim, to be sent to sin bin. And once again, the team was caught in a precarious situation of warding off 6 attackers with 5 defenders on the touchdown line.

A slow drift on defence resulted in a dive touchdown from Alvinia off a tap.

The score was 4 -3 to Monsoon Toas.
The whistle went off and that signalled full-time.

Nevertheless, it was a good display of touch, tenacity and determination from Blacks. Though the weather was wet, dull and dreary, over at our substitution box, all of us had a ‘rainbow’ over our heads (we really did have a rainbow above our heads if you remember the humungous umbrella, courtesy of Wan.)

I don’t suppose it was the cheer that didn’t make sense to some players or the gigantic rainbow brolly that made the game experience and outcome so sweet and gratifying. It was the team’s never-say-die attitude and indomitable spirit and let’s hope the team brings those with them for every game in the league.

Penned by: Mephine