University women reach historic final

Exeter dominated from the start, putting in some big tackles. UWIC, who have been unbeaten since 2006 and have been the dominating force in University women's rugby in recent years, couldn't keep up with the Exeter’s pace. Exeter's forwards played a near-perfect first half and retained possession and turned over the ball consistently. A deserved result after years of hard work behind the scenes by players and coaching staff and to win without conceding a point demonstrates the strength of Exeter’s squad.

Mark Tomlinson, Director of Women's rugby said: "having been beaten twice by UWIC in the league phase this year, the team displayed remarkable commitment and passion, as well as a clinical execution of the skills we have been working on all season.  We know the final will be a massive match, but the team earned themselves the opportunity to run out on the hallowed turf at Twickenham, an experience they will never forget".
 
Rugby scholar Lucy Demaine, 1st year Medicine student said: “we are a little battered and bruised, but we now have 6 weeks to get ourselves ready for Twickenham on  27th April.  The rugby experience at Exeter was already a fantastic one, but this will be the icing on the cake. The whole team are over the moon with our winning performance and really looking forward to the final”

The final hurdle that stands in the way of winning The ‘BUCS Rugby Union - Knockouts Women's Championship 2010/2011’ at Twickenham are last year's defeated finalists, Leeds Metropolitan University.  The rugby club expect to have a large following of supporters from Exeter and hope to see Exeter alumni from all over the country attending to support them.

The men's first XV rugby team, also in the national semi final on the 9th march at Dudley rugby club, were unable to hold UWIC out.  After an impressive first half performance leading 18-6 going into half time, they succumbed to a strong UWIC team, eventually losing 34-18. UWIC will go on to play Durham in the final.
Keith Fleming, Director of Men's Rugby commented "We put in a valiant performance but credit must go to UWIC who outplayed us in the second half. We'll now look to end our season on a high in the remaining league games and start to look towards next year."