One last dance

With a 0-56 result from previous weekend, this Saturday’s return match away against Vänersborg would always be an uphill battle. Even more so considering Uppsala Berserkers were missing several experienced players, making the starting lineup – especially the back line – full of new combinations. In a wild turn of events, the team was also missing their first, second and third choice kicker, which meant that retiring captain Devine at 8 had to do the honours.

Vänersborg came out hard right from the kickoff and scored within minutes. It was just a taster of what 80 minutes would feel like. Determination, a spark here and there, big double tackles, but not much team attack to write home about. An early yellow card on (also retiring) hooker Amy Valdivia Vela made it even harder to defend the edges of the pitch, and the points kept rolling in for the home team. A few injuries made sure the Uppsala Berserkers bench got used, and a flanker turned centre suddently had to morph into a scrum half (strangely enough not the first time we’ve seen Lauren Davies run as 9 on this very field!).

Amongst all the bruises, black eyes (sorry Siri!) and trampled fingers were some nuggets of gold. A very promising Allsvenskan debut with several impressive tackles from Emilia Herkel. A scrum driving Vänersborg off the ball, so good we surprised even ourselves. A glint of steel in some players’ eyes, a refusal to give up. Ultimately not enough to come away with points, but there nevertheless. The final result was 94-0 to Vänersborg, kept under a hundred by a very small margin as a final try at full time was centimetres away but held up by captain Devine.

A rough end to the season, but a well deserved aggregate win and bronze medal for Vänersborg. It was also the last game Uppsala and Berserkers played together as the club collaboration is coming to an end – 2026 will see two teams instead of one!