The first team headed down to Birmingham for their penultimate match of the BUCS Premier North League on Wednesday, knowing that a win would secure them 1st place.
A 3pm kick off meant most of the horrible weather from the morning had blown over and clear skies were on the horizon. This 22 strong squad knew the importance of the game and the girls were focused and switched on from the get go.
Edinburgh kicked off and the pressure of the greens allowed Katie Dougan to capilatise on a dropped ball from the brummy attack. With Edinburgh making their first attack and looking sharp on the ball, Lauren 'Haggis' Harris was able to get a try within the first few minutes. This was closely followed with another try from speedster Liz Musgrove who displayed some angelic footwork and put the ball down under the sticks.
With Lucy Winter making her return to the game, she was quickly back to her old ticks. She was making huge carries, pushing through the Birmingham attack like a bowling ball knocking down pins. After 20 minute Edinburgh's attack took it close to the try line once more, and it fell to President McMaster to get a heroic 3rd try for the team. The next 25 minutes saw Edinburgh settle into their stride and with three more tries from Liz, Rachel Law and Amy Walter, the score at the half time whistle was 43-0.
As the second half got underway, the benched players came on and displayed the impressive depth of talent in this squad by putting in confident performances. It was soon evident that the change didn’t hault the performance in this game!
Natalie Guy was having a storming match, resilient as ever in attack and putting in hit after hit whenever the red shirts had possession. Edinburgh scored a further 6 tries in the second half including one from ex rower Julia Guerreo who only started playing rugby this year.
As the full time whistle blew it was now official that Edinburgh University would be BUCS Premier North League Winners for the second year running!
The final score was 88-0, reflecting an outstanding performance from all the girls who displayed pure elation at the end of the game when the reality of the accomplishment set in!
The following evening at the SU Ball, the 1XVs won team of the year and this was an achievement that was proudly received and well deserved.
Coach Claire Cruikshank had this to say about this ground-breaking week for the club:
'To win the league for a 2nd successive year is unbelievable. The 1st XV winning Team of the Year for Edinburgh University just tops everything off. This is a whole club achievement, we have close to 100 members and hope to put out a 3rd team soon, the 1st XV get their moment in the spotlight but everyone has contributed to this.'
