East triumphant

The Swaffham blog reports that Jess and Sasha returned home with winners medals last night, East U18 beating South 15-3 in the final. This is the first East win since (I think) 2004 or 2005 (someone could correct me on that). 

Simon Shutler reports that "the U18’s on Sunday played some fantastic rugby also with huge performances from the Hertfordshire contingent. Scores were 7:0 against Ospreys and South East in the pool. 19:5 against South West South in the semi and 15:3 against South in the final. So only one try conceded and a huge defensive display by the girls who were put under considerable pressure by all the very good teams we played."

The U15s did almost as well, and could at least claim to be the best in England, after losing narrowly in the final to Cardiff Blues - one of the new Welsh regions and another sign of the massive growth in strength of Welsh women's and girls' rugby. Shame that cross border rugby is made so difficult sometimes.

Thank you to Kevan Gattlin for the photographs.

Incidentally, having seen both the senior and junior teams, I seriously doubt whether the seniors are a stronger team than the U18s - certainly not as much as we were assured they were back in December. One or two physically larger players (such as a prop that sent Hayley flying through the air during the pre-match warm-up!), but on sheer skill (and speed) I reckon I'd go for the U18s every time. One reason is that while the U18 regional teams contain the best U18s in that region, but this is clearly not the case for the adult teams. Too many adults do not see the point of the adult regional programme, and I'd have to agree with them.