Taking on CWB April 14th at SKP the Black Ladies won the Grand Championship for the 2nd season in a row and this time they completed a fantastic league and Grand Championship double! It was a very competitive with the players giving 100% and putting on a great display of women's rugby.

After an early exchange of penalties, Valley went ahead for good when HK Women's Player of the Year, Sam Scott, powered over from a rolling maul. Valley's answer to Daniel Carter, Olivia Andrade, nailed the conversion from near the touch-line and soon after added a penalty to make it 13-3. Cheered on by a large and vocal Valley crowd, the pack led the way dominating the scrums and line-outs, creating great opportunities for the back line to show their magic. With Valley dominant CWB finally got some field position and possession for their dangerous backs. After a sustained period of pressure CWB constructed a nice back-line move to breach Valley's swarming defence for about the only time in the game. With the conversion missed it was 13-8 at half time.

CWB exerted more pressure in the 2nd half with the benefit of some unusual refereeing interpretations at ruck time, but a superb 75m try from Becky Underwood, converted by Olivia put Valley firmly in control. The girls withstood everything CWB could throw at them in the closing stages, and ran out worthy winners 20-8 to cap an outstanding season.

The ladies have come on leaps and bounds over the last 2 years, due in no small part to the unstinting efforts of 'Coach of the Year' Dave Payne, Co-coach and ex Perpignon rep Thierry Mandonnaud, and organiser supreme Adma Andrade. Fantastic effort guys and I know the girls really appreciate what you have done for them.

In the words of new Valley Ruby Coordinator and excited spectator Arran Young - the only man to run Boozer close in ratio of injuries to games played for Valley (about 20 tours, 10 injuries and 3 games???).

"I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed watching the girls last night – they have made huge progress in the last 2 yrs both on and off the pitch. I thought the forwards were magnificent – the front row really put the front row club sessions into practice and dominated from the start – we competed so well in the line out and our back row recycled, hit it up and consistently carried superbly well. Our back line really mixed it up with some strong running in midfield and some intelligent use of the ball out wide."

"But the biggest thing that struck me about the way this teams game has changed is their defence – apart from that one lapse in the first half I thought the girls made the kind of hits a number of us old boys remember making back in the day. We got up quickly and drifted really well. The kind of physicality we showed out there made me proud to be wearing the jersey last night."

"So please thank the girls for a really entertaining game – the full 80 minutes showed total commitment – they were a credit to themselves, their coaches and the club – absolutely awesome!"

Stirring words from the man with more fancy dress outfits than Liberace!

www.valleyrfc.com/photo-gallery/2010-04-black-ladies-grand-final-night