Sarries Women win National Cup

By Jason Harris
May 20 2003

Saracens Women beat Clifton 22-17 to take the Rugby World National Cup in an exciting encounter at the Metropolitan Police ground last weekend.

Sarries outscored the west country team four tries to two in a tight contest in which the lead changed hands on several occasions.

Welsh international Non Evans scored and converted the first Clifton try before Sarries hit back with five pointers from Emma Mitchell and Helen Clayton. Evans kicked a further penalty for Clifton to make the half time score even at 10 points apiece.

Durin the secone period the Bristol-based side once again took the lead after England international Suzy Appleby scored a try which Evans duly converted.

Saracens clawed back to 17-17 coutesy of a converted try from Eilidh Smith and finished with a flourish when Sarah Ullmer crossed for the winning score.

Saracens captain Clayton said afterwards " We are very happy to have won this title. It was an extremely hard fought and physical game for all of our players. For many of the team it was the first Cup Final and all of them rose to the occasion and did what was asked of them. The start of our season was extremely hard with many first team injuries and it took us until January of this year to bring our team up to full strength."