University of Exeter Women secure bronze in 7’s competition.

The team had trained hard over Easter under the guise of Women’s Rugby coach Jo Yapp. The sessions were tough in preparation for some tough physical battles, utilising the superb training facilities at the Sports Park, including the 3G rugby pitch and the gym facilities. They headed to Leeds with confidence in a good performance.

 The first match was against Durham, where Exeter didn’t disappoint securing a 19 – 5 win with a great team performance. The next game saw Exeter against a strong Northumbria team including the World Cup winning captain Katy Mclean. Exeter fought hard in a bruising encounter but ended up on the losing side 12-24. The third game now came with added pressure to win and the Exeter squad stepped up with a superb effort to convincingly beat Loughborough 36-17 with tries from Lucy Demaine, Bryony Cleall, Kate Alder, Rebecca De Filippo and Charlotte Lord. Exeter had progressed to the semi-finals for a repeat game against Northumbria. A place in the final was waiting for the winners, which resulted in a tight battle, unfortunately Exeter narrowly lost out by a single try. Despite the disappointing loss, Exeter still had a Bronze medal to play for and showed superb courage to raise their game once more to defeat Edinburgh and secure the Bronze.

 “I am very proud of what the girls have achieved. They are a very cohesive team who have worked extremely hard for each other all season.” Jo Yapp, Women’s Rugby Head Coach.

 Director of Sport, Alison Davidson, was full of praise for the team’s achievement, commenting “Our Women’s Rugby programme continues to deliver impressive results thanks to the commitment and talent of our students and staff. I know that the team will be disappointed not to have gone all the way and win Gold, a sign of how much we’ve developed in rugby and how ambitious the team is, but this result remains a fantastic achievement. ”

 The Women’s Rugby club have also proved to very strong in the 15-a-side format, reaching the BUCS Championship semi-finals in 2014, the final in 2011 and winning Gold at Twickenham in 2013.

 This most recent rugby success also helps the University’s position in the overall BUCS rankings table. At the time of writing we sit in 5th position of 153 UK institutions in the BUCS table as we seek to match our highest ever finish of 5th, achieved in 2013. With a number of fixtures and events remaining in the BUCS calendar, the coming weeks will be crucial in determining final rankings.

Rugby is one of ten focus sports on the University’s High Performance Programme. For more information about High Performance sport at the University, contact SportsPerformance@exeter.ac.uk