Lancashire claimed the Gill Burns Women’s County Championship Division One title with a sublime display to beat Buckinghamshire 25-15 at Twickenham.
Tries from Zena Francis, Lydia Humphries and Rowanne Smalley combined with the assured boot of fly-half Aimee Wallace, who scored 10 points, was enough to see Lancashire over the line.
Buckinghamshire scored three tries of their own, including a Lauren Head first-half double and Charlotte Dennis’ score in the second half.
In the end though Rocky Clark’s charges could not quite manage to come back into the game after a blistering 10 minutes from Lancashire at the start of the second half.
After a tense opening ten minutes, it was Buckinghamshire who drew first blood when full-back Head received the ball 10 metres out to dive into the right corner.
Lancashire rallied and reduced the gap to two points almost immediately through a Wallace penalty.
Wallace missed a second penalty attempt to give Lancashire the lead, but they would not have to wait long to make amends when No.8 Francis drove through heart of the Buckinghamshire defence with a powerful carry to dot down.
Clark’s side came back to level the scores shortly before the break, again through Head, this time on the opposite side and the teams went in level at 10-10.
That momentum did not quite carry into the second half however, as Lancashire began to build a strong lead. First through centre Humphries, who broke clear to score under the posts, which was duly converted by Wallace, before Smalley calmly finished in the corner to give Lancashire a 22-10 lead with 25 minutes on the clock.
There was a hint of a comeback when replacement hooker Dennis bundled over from close range but once again Lancashire were quickly able to extend the lead back to two scores through another Wallace penalty.
That proved to be enough to seal glory for Lancashire, who will look to make it a sensational double swoop of Twickenham this afternoon when their men face Kent in the Bill Beaumont Men’s County Championship Final, a feat last achieved in 2017.
Try-scorer Francis said: “It’s amazing, there are no words to really describe it (scoring at Twickenham), once you cross the line and you put the ball down you think, oh my god I have done it!
“I have crossed that line, I have done it for my team and it is such a great feeling. I think I screamed and I probably hurt someone hugging them but it was great.
“We were working so hard for it, we could feel it coming and it is just great that (Aimee) Wallace passed me that ball and I was able to put it over the line.
“It is nice to get a win for the region, we are here to represent the north and we have won, so I think it is a pretty big statement.”
Co-Captain Sian Hughes was also thrilled to be presented the trophy by England and Lancashire icon Gill Burns, whom the tournament is named after. “Gill Burns is such an icon and to win this for her and take it back up north, she will be so proud of us as a county, she is obviously a massive advocate for the sport and to see how proud she was, it was just an amazing experience.
“We will be cheering the lads on now, so hopefully we can make it two out of two before getting the bus back up.”
Buckinghamshire head coach and England legend Clark said: “Lancashire are a really well drilled side and you have to take your hat off to them, they knew the gameplan and they stuck to it, I think we made a few too many errors and gave away too many penalties. We are disappointed with the result, there is no point hiding from it – but I am so proud of how the girls have been all season, I am a really proud coach.
“It was my highest honour to be here as a coach, leading these amazing women but I am a little frustrated that we could not get the game going as much as we wanted to.
“I was commentating yesterday in the Premiership final, so it was interesting to go from commentator to coach the next day, but it is such a brilliant weekend of rugby.
“We need to celebrate English Rugby’s successes at the moment and there has been some brilliant action on the pitch and I am sure there will be more later on with the Barbarians.”
The finals for Divisions 2 & 3, as well as the Jason Leonard U20s Final, will take place across the weekend of 3/4 June at Ealing Trailfinders. All the finals will be livestreamed via the England Rugby YouTube channel.
Saturday 3 June at Ealing Trailfinders – Bill Beaumont Division 2 Final & Bill Beaumont Division 3 Final
Sunday 4 June at Ealing Trailfinders – Gill Burns Division 2 Final, Gill Burns Division 3 Final & Jason Leonard U20 Final
To keep up with the latest County Championship fixtures and results, visit EnglandRugby.com and follow @RFU on Twitter
With thanks to the RFU
