EUWRFC through to BUCS Final

EUWRFC 17–14 Leeds Met Carnegie 1st

Wednesday March 6 saw Exeter Women’s Rugby team take on Leeds Met in the semi finals.

Having narrowly beaten Exeter 19-10 on neutral ground last year, Leeds Met was feeling confident. But Exeter was determined to prevent history repeating itself.

Off to Twickenham!

From the start, both teams brought hard hitting tackles and rucks to the pitch. Leeds Met put pressure on Exeter – in their territory – in the first few minutes, but the tide soon turned in Exeter’s favour.

An excellent scrum from Exeter’s forward pack, which involved stealing the ball from Leeds Met, turned the game around. Meanwhile, Exeter forwards dominated the set pieces and rucks, creating great platforms for the backs to work off.

After 17 minutes of hard work, an excellent scrum at the 5m line led to fly half Lucy Demaine crashing through the opposition and putting Exeter on the scoreboard. The visitors didn’t drop their heads, but instead upped their game and achieved a successfully converted try just minutes later.

This was followed by a series of handling mistakes from both sides, as the anxiety to put points past the opposition increased. But Exeter didn’t take long to compose themselves, and regained the lead as Clara Nielson crashed through Leeds Met’s defence a minute before halftime.

With a half time score of 10-7 to Exeter, the second half started off similarly to the first. There were hard-hitting scrums, rucks and mauls from both sides.

But it was obvious that fatigue had caught up with the visitors’ forward pack, as player after player went to ground after each scrum.

Exeter continued its relentless attack from the end of the first half and Prop Sarah Lambson extended the lead with a try in the 58th minute, successfully converted by Lucy Demaine.

Leeds Met fought back hard, but Exeter strengthened its defence and rendered the visitors’ attacking attempts unanswered until the very last play. The second half ended with a converted try by Leeds Met.

Exeter worked hard to contain the determined opposition’s waves of attacks and emerged victorious, with a 17-14 win.

Exeter will take on Cardiff Met in the BUCS Championship on Sunday March 24 at Twickenham. Click here for more details.