A quartet of Minehead Barbarians Under 16 girls represented Somerset at the weekend.

On Sunday, four girls from the Minehead Barbarians U16 rugby team travelled to Exeter Saracens RFC to represent Somerset in a round robin tournament against Devon, Cornwall and Dorset/Wiltshire.

Katie Thompson (scrum half) had the honour of captaining the Somerset team and along with Abi Pentland (number 8), Ellie Tickner (prop), and Zoe Westcott (flanker) made up the quartet.

In very wet and muddy conditions, the girls faced Dorset and Wilts in the first match, winning that match by the only try of the game, scored by Abi Pentland

The second game against Cornwall was lost by one try, although Somerset thought they had earned a well deserved draw, when Abi dotted down following a sniping run from Katie.

The referee awarded the try, which was then disallowed following intervention by the touch judge.

In the final game against Devon, the Somerset girls went down by one try in a very evenly contested match.

Every girl from the Barbarians performed admirably in very testing conditions, with some barnstorming runs from Ellie and excellent support and defensive work from Zoe.

They were a credit to themselves and to their club.

This concluded this season’s involvement with the Somerset England Rugby Development Player Pathway which has been a real feather in the clubs cap having seven players involved giving them a taste of what professional rugby is about thanks to the involvement of Bristol Bears.

Seren Cherry who featured in the previous match, Aimee Tucker and Niamh Harris can all also be credited with their involvement throughout the season.

The Minehead girls’ team and parents would like to publicly thank the coaches, Martin Cherry and Dick Tucker for all their help, support, encouragement, coaching skills and patience throughout the season.