England star Emily Scarratt is hoping to lead her University side to student glory at Twickenham today.
Scarratt, a Sport & Exercise Science student at Leeds Metropolitan University, was part of the England Women’s rugby union side that lifted this year’s RBS 6 Nations Championships and was instrumental in the team’s Grand Slam winning performance. She will now line up alongside her student team-mates in next week’s British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) rugby union finals to be played at the home of England rugby on Wednesday 27 April.
Leeds Metropolitan have reached the final for the third successive year but will hope to go one better this time as they come up against Exeter University after victory over Loughborough in the semi finals.
Leeds Met were unlucky to come away from last year’s final empty handed after a spirited second half comeback just wasn’t quite enough to defeat the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC) Women’s rugby team, losing 19-12.
With the five times reigning champions out of this year’s competition, having been defeated by Exeter in the semi-final, a new name will be on the trophy for 2011. Leeds Met have been in superb form this season, coasting to victory in all of their 13 games, scoring a total of 720 points and conceding a total of just 56.
This year’s opposition, Exeter University, have overcome the challenges of Oxford (54-5), Chichester (99-0) and UWIC (24-0) en route to the final.
As Scarratt explains they’ll be looking to avenge last year’s final heartache: “We are really looking forward to playing Exeter at Twickenham, hopefully we can go there and come away with the win this year. We’ve got a great squad here at Leeds Met and the girls have been playing well all season. It’s an honour to play at Twickenham and I know will give it our all to try and bring the trophy back to Yorkshire.”
The final will take place at Twickenham on Wednesday April 27, kick off at 12pm.