Buckinghamshire suffered a 15-25 defeat in the Gill Burns County Championship Division 1 Final at Twickenham with their head coach, Rocky Clark, emphasising her mix of emotions.

The Thames Valley side were in the contest for large parts of the match, but their northern counterparts came out on top at the home of English rugby over the Bank Holiday Weekend.

Buckinghamshire came out the stronger of the two sides quickly scoring a try going 5-0 up thanks to the first of Lauren Head’s two tries.

Clark’s team put the first points on the board and went into the break 10-10, however, they were chasing the game in the second half after Lancashire quickly controlled the majority of the second half.

But some moments of poor discipline and too many unforced errors let Bucks down, as they gave away several cheap penalties which the North West team capitalised on.

She said: “Lancashire are a really well drilled side, you’ve got to take your hat off to them, they knew their gameplan and they stuck to it.

“We are disappointed with the result there is no point in hiding from it but how proud I am of the girls getting here and putting in a shift all season I am a really proud, happy coach.

“We started really well but we lost our way a bit throughout the game.

“We struggled to break them down, they had a good 10, a good 13.

“It is the highest honour as a coach to coach these amazing women, but I am a little frustrated we could not get our game going as well as we wanted to but you know that is a testament to Lancashire’s defence.”

Despite the loss, Co-Captain Nicky Gross highlighted the sides progress over the past few seasons and with it being one of the ‘first times in division one which has been much harder than division two’.

In 2019, Buckinghamshire were crowned Gill Burns Division 2 Winners at Twickenham.

‘To come back again and play in the final is a massive honour and we want to do one better next year so watch this space’.

Clark has amassed an impressive 137 England caps making her the most capped player in England international history, including both men and women until Sarah Hunter received her 138th cap at the 2021 Women’s World Cup.