The first ever inter-school rugby tournament for girls teams took place at Welwyn on Wednesday - and was a huge success.

Six teams entered with four representing single schools - Highfield (Letchworth); Hitchin Girls; Roysia (Royston), and Yavneh College (Borehamwood), and two combined town teams - "Welwyn Schools" (made up of girls from Stanborough and Sir Frederic Osborne) and "Hertford schools" (with girls from Chauncey, Simon Balle, and Presdales).

The teams were all made up of girls from school years 7-9, and the games were played to the full RFUW U14 laws - with scrums and full contact tackling. For many girls from the single schools this was their first competitive fixture, but the two combined teams included many experienced players from their respective town's club teams. They were clearly in a different league to everyone else from the outset and so the day was split with "Welwyn Schools" and "Hertford Schools" going straight into the final, and other teams playing off to find the best newcomers

The "final" was a great disdplay of junior rugby, with Hertford winning in the end by 25-5. Both of Hertford and Welwyn now go through to the next stage with the prize of a place in the national final at Twickenham the ultimate target.

In the "newcomers" event Hitchin Girls (coached and supported by several girls from Letchworth U17s) narrowly took the title ahead of Highfield (coached and supported by a different set of girls from Letchworth U17s!) by virtue of scoring one more try over the day. Roysia came third, but perhaps the performance of the day was from Yavneh - who were all year seven girls and, while they lost two and drew one, "were a really plucky bunch!".

It was one of the Yavneh girls who was asked what she liked about rugby at the end and said "I like the bit when you can jump on people!"