The hopes of playing at Twickenham, the official home of England Rugby, has ended for two of East London RFC’s Vixens ladies’ side following a narrow defeat on Sunday (2 June).

Freya Challis and Sorcha Caudery were in the Essex County Ladies squad playing Cumbria at Harlow RFC in a RFU County Championship Gill Burns Trophy Division 3 Pool 1 match. The winners would go through to a final at Twickenham.

Despite a try from Freya, playing at full back, Essex narrowly lost the match 22-24. Sorcha was named as an impact replacement from the bench, buy never got minutes on the pitch.

The try on Sunday brought Freya's total to six from three matches for Essex, having scored twice on her county debut in a 69-5 home win over Oxfordshire (19 May) and a hat-trick in a 5-43 victory away victory over Staffordshire (26 May), a match in which forward Sorcha made her county debut from the bench and played for 70 minutes.

East London RFC women’s rugby officer and vice chair Kat Salthouse said: “Everyone at East London RFC is mightily proud of Freya and Sorcha."