Letchworth girls' rugby team recorded their best ever result in a national tournament on Sunday when they fourth in the National Tens in Lichfield, only missing out on third place on points difference. In terms of entries, the RFUW National Tens is probably the largest club tournament in English girls rugby. Regional qualifying tournaments across the country reduce the entry down to six teams for the national finals, which were this year played alongside the adult finals.
Letchworth's opponents this year included holders Worcester, Wimborne (Hampshire), Reading, Darlington Mowden Park, and Tynedale – massive clubs with impressive reputations and histories of national titles - and Letchworth would have to play them all in the space of three hours!
Letchworth opened against Wimbourne, and a very close fought battle again ended in a draw with the same 10-10 with tries for Letchworth from Sasha Acheson and Hayley Guilder.
The second game against Tynedale saw Letchworth build up a sound lead through a hat-trick of tries by Hayley and a try and two conversions from Sasha - only to have Tynedale respond strongly to the challenge scoring 3 tries of their own and chasing the game all the way to the final whistle. The final score was Letchworth 24 Tynedale 17.
The third game was against favourites Worcester who lived up to that billing with some fine rugby. Despite Letchworth's best efforts, Worcester scored 6 tries and ran out 38 - 0 winners.
The penultimate game was against northern champions Darlington Mowden Park who stormed away to lead Letchworth 15 - 0 at the interval and, but for some determined defence, it could have been more - Katie Alcock getting underneath the ball as Darlington tried to ground it for a try, while Charlie Hughes drove a Darlington attacker out from the in goal area. Letchworth came out for the second half in determined mood and they forced themselves back into the game with tries by Carla Kelly and Natalie Threlfall to make it 15-10 with just two minutes remaining. The finale of the game came with Nikki Alcock breaking through the centre of the Darlington defence deep in the Letchworth half, running half a pitch length before the defence got to her and then offloading to Randy Randfield who galloped under the posts to level the scores. Sasha held her nerve to kick over the conversion and Letchworth had secured the narrowest of wins 17 - 15.
After that the last game saw some exhausted girls take on Reading and although Letchworth were competing strongly throughout the match, Reading cut though to score four tries. The match ended with Letchworth camped on the Reading line but unable to convert that position into points. Final score : Reading 24 Letchworth 0.
Having won two games and drawn another Letchworth had an identical record to Wimbourne who, by virtue of a better points difference, were awarded third place – but even so fourth is the highest placing Letchworth Girls have ever achieved in an RFUW National competition
