GIRLS RUGBY: More success for Borough Under 13s

The Purple Bricks-sponsored side strengthened their claim to be the best team in the country when they won the prestigious RAF RFU Girls Rugby Festival for the second year running by beating arch-rivals Welwyn Garden City in the final.

“We’ve had a fantastic rivalry with Welwyn this season,” said team manager Simon Potter. “They ended our 74-game winning streak in October, then in the return fixture in February we became the first team to beat them all season.

“We then drew in the final of our festival a few weeks ago, so it was the highlight of our season to put the record straight by beating them on Sunday.”

The Borough girls won that final 25-5 after being in a tough qualifying group that saw them held to a 10-10 draw by Old Albanians before beating Reading 80-0 and Old Northamptonians 15-5 to narrowly pip Old Albanians to a place in the final by their try scoring record. Old Albanians finished third by beating Basingstoke in the Plate final.

Borough Under-15 girls team, in their first season, finished a creditable fourth out of 10 in their age group after reaching the Plate final by beating Welwyn 17-0 and a combined Ampthill/Bedford team 17-5 after being unlucky to lose their opening game to Gosford Grove 12-5. They lost a nail-biting final 15-12 against Buckingham.

“The standard of girls rugby has rocketed in the last 12 months,” added Potter, “and it’s been really hard work for our Under 13s to stay a step ahead of so many top-quality sides, but we have the most wonderful set of girls.

“Our Under 15s have worked really hard and have had some great results despite being short on numbers. Next season looks like being really promising for both sides.”

Just two defeats in 105 matches for the Under 13s over the last couple of seasons tells its own story.

The two teams are off to Cornwall this coming weekend, aiming to wrap up the season with one hugh celebration party and hopefully another trophy as they compete in the massive West Coast Rocks event.