AshHutt’s Aidan Elvines hunts for a gap in the Craighead defence in Methven on Wednesday. Photo Matt MarkhamAfter copping a hiding from Timaru Girls’ High School (TGHS) a week prior, Craighead arrived at the Methven Domain a girls’ rugby team on a mission on Wednesday night.

They took their frustrations out on the AshHutt girls, handing the Ashburton College and Mount Hutt College combined side a 57-5 loss.

The night didn’t start so bad, though, coach Grant Elvines said.

For once, his side started well with a long period of possession and territory, but they found out just how good the Craighead backline was pretty quickly.

The Craighead backs taught the AshHutt girls a valuable lesson on straight, hard running, drawing and passing, and how to get the ball to the outside backs as quickly as possible.

“Our backs played well, but were no match for what was an exceptionally well-drilled group of girls,” Elvines said.

The AshHutt forwards had the measure of their counterparts, especially at scrum-time, and were more than competitive at rucks and mauls, but no matter how many tackles they made there was always another Craighead jersey on hand to carry the movement on.

Elvines said the midfield pairing of Olivia Bishop and Jorja Johnston produced a strong performance, especially on defence, and halfback Isabelle Talbot distributed the ball well, at times under a lot of pressure.

The AshHutt tight five had probably their best game of the season, shining in the set piece, and there was no loss of momentum when reserve locks Georgia Middleton and Margret Eli came off the bench, with Eli scoring AshHutt’s only try of the night.

Elvines said loose forward Grace Bleach was again like a puppy with two tails and her enthusiasm for the game was contagious, while captain Aidan Elvines led her troops from the front, again topping the tackle count.

“The pleasing thing as a coach is seeing an improvement from the girls every game they play, and it was just unfortunate we struck Craighead on a day when they were on fire,” coach Elvines said.

It was a sad night for the AshHutt side, as they said farewell to Mount Hutt College’s Tyla Harraway, who was playing in her final match for the side.

Elvines said Harraway had been a real warrior in the team for the past three years and she would be sorely missed, but the team wished her well.

Life wasn’t about to get any easier for AshHutt, with their next match being against the top of the table TGHS side.

That game will be played at the Ashburton Celtic grounds at 4.30pm this Wednesday.

Meanwhile Mid Canterbury Combined will run out onto the Ashburton College field for their final time in this year’s UC Championship today.

They’re playing Timaru Boys’ High School in the Crusaders region secondary schools’ rugby championship game, which will kick off at midday.

The Mid Canterbury Combined boys are yet to win a game this season, while TBHS haven’t fared much better, with just two victories from their eight outings.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 28 June 2019