St Mary’s Women’s Rugby Union Team Win BUCS Sevens Trophy

The Women’s Rugby Union team at St Mary’s University, Twickenham were crowned British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) Rugby Sevens Trophy champions in Leeds last week.

St Mary’s Women picked up the trophy after going unbeaten throughout the group and knockout stages before beating last year’s champions, the University of Bath, in the final 31-12 of the one-day tournament.

The team topped their group after wins over the University of Nottingham, Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Manchester and a draw with Cardiff Metropolitan University, before knocking out the University of Bristol in the quarter-final and the University of Leeds in the semi-final.

The victorious team featured sports scholars Emma Uren and Nora Baltruweit. Emma was recently made captain of England Women U20s and was also part of the Saracens Women team who won the inaugural Premier 15s title, while German International Nora was called up to the Barbarians’ Women’s squad for a match against the Army in March.

St Mary’s Men’s team also competed in the BUCS Rugby Sevens Trophy Finals and reached the quarter-final before losing out to Cardiff Metropolitan University.

They qualified from their group after finishing runners-up with wins over the University of Leeds, Northumbria University and Loughborough University before narrowly missing out on top spot to Leeds Beckett University, who edged them out in the final group game.

Director of Sport at St Mary’s Andrew Reid-Smith, said, “Both squads should be congratulated but in particular the women’s team. They had to beat strong competition to win the trophy and their success reflects their ability and hard work, supported by the significant improvements being made to the St Mary’s student sport programme.”