12:00am Saturday 1st January 2000
Saracens Ladies Rugby Club won the National Sevens title in Petersfield last weekend, a title they have not won since 1994.
It was a hard-fought finale to one of the hardest competitive seasons they have ever encountered in their history.
The victory gave them the magic treble of titles, having already clinched the national league and cup double.
Player Katie Ball said: This puts Saracens in the history books forever. No other womens club has collected all three titles, but we have done it twice now.
The Southgate-based girls cruised through the early rounds of the competition and on Sunday drew their toughest opposition, the old enemy Richmond in the semi-final.
The game went to the wire with Sarries running in four tries to Richmonds three .
Wasps came through the other side of the draw, beating the ever strengthening Harlequins side in their semi-final.
As in the national cup and the league, it was Wasps and Saracens who were battling for the silverware.
Englands skipper Lawrence Dalligio, who was rooting for his club Wasps, was there to see it but it was to be a triumph for north London over west once more.
Wasps opened the scoring with a superb effort from England centre Sue Day, reputed to be the fastest in the English womens game.
But Saracens replied with a try under the posts from Michelle Cave. Nicola Smith converted to level it up.
Wasps again found their sprint master Day who screamed round the defence for a second time before popping the ball to Belinda Slee who got another score.
Wasps were then awarded a dubious penalty that was taken quickly and allowed them to score under the posts.
At half-time the score stood at 17-7 and Saracens were struggling.
But in the second period, Sarries bounced back and Chris Diver went over in the corner.
Nicola Smith then burst through a gap to find the tryline once again and it seemed to break the Wasps girls self belief.
Suddenly, Saracens could see that winning the treble was a possibility.
The score was 19-17 with about two minutes on the clock and the crowd of 3,000 were getting louder.
Saracens kicked off to Wasps and fullback Paula George broke clear for the line.
But Diver chased her all the way, forcing her to check her stride and lose the ball from which Saracens regained possession and Diver was somehow on the end of the move to score the winner in the dying moments.
It crowned an excellent performance by both her and the team during a taxing season. The tears of joy at the presentation podium were testament to that.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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