Regional quartet just miss out on title

Our four regional players played a full part in last ever U17 regional championships at Rugby School yesterday - and came within touching distance of a national title.

Fern, Nim and Hayley before the semi-finals. Sasha had wandered off somewhere...

Nim, Hayley and Sasha all appeared in all four of East Regions games. Hayley, her hand strapped up, made the first major contribution with one of best tries of the day, and one her best ever. Combining her strength to smash through the Yorkshire defence, she sped for the line, outpacing almost everyone, then almost balletically side-stepping the Yorkshire full-back before touching down. Shame this one won't be on video.

This was a crucial game for East. Yorkshire had earlier beaten South East by only 5-0, despite having 95% of the ball and spending most of the game on South East's line, so if they beat Yorkshire a semi-final place looked very likely. Hayley's unconverted try was the difference between the two team right up until the end, when a Yorkshire try under the posts looked to have won it... only for Kettering's Lizzel Heather to dramatically charge down the conversion attempt. East then came from behind to beat South East by a larger margin than Yorkshire had managed, and so met South in the semis.

Meanwhile Fern was with the East Midlands squad in the other half of the draw. Playing second row she was involved in everything in their hard-fought but crucial win over South West (North), after which she watched her teammates easily defeat Thames Valley to reach the semi-finals as well.

Fern fights to secure the ball for East Midlands v South West (North)

East Midlands semi-final kicked off first, and they proved too strong for North East - so could we have a Letchworth v Letchworth final? Unfortunately it was not to be - mistakes at the start cost an early try from which east were never able to recover. But a comfortable win over North East, rounded off with a try from Sasha, secured third place.

Hayley lines up her next victim...

So to the final, with East Midlands 10-0 up at half time and cruising over South. South pulled a try back in the second half, but seemed unlikely to win - until, on the last move of the game, a tired East Midlands pass was intercepted right in front of the posts to allow South to steal the game, the title, and Fern's winner's medal!

Thus ended a long day that didn't see us back in Letchworth until after 8pm - and the South West South team (who were mainly Liskeard, plus a few Exeter Saracens!) unlikely to be home before midnight.