Double success for Crusaders in Edinburgh

There was twice the celebration for England Crusaders at the inaugural EFT Premiership Permit competition.

Both the Men’s and Women’s Open teams took home the Cup finals after four days of intense action, but there were different ways to the titles for the respective sides.

The Women had an outstanding weekend, and aside from a draw with Scotland Kelpies at the end of day one had a perfect run of results, winning their other five pool matches to top the table going into the knockout stages.

Another win over the Kelpies in the Qualification match put the Crusaders into the Cup final, where they overcame England Knights to win the trophy.

However the Knights had a good shout to be the team of the knockout stages. After finishing fourth in the table they faced a pair of sudden death games just to get to the Cup final. But while they got the wins when they needed them, seeing off the Frenchies and then the Kelpies, the extra minutes on the field took their toll in the final.

There was more success in the Plate, in which England Royals won both their round-robin games against the Irish Falcons and Scotland Stags to take home their own silverware.

The roles were reversed somewhat between the Knights and Crusaders in the Men’s Open, where the former finished top of the table with six wins and one loss from their seven games, while the latter side ended up in third place on touchdown difference.

Scotland Stags may have pipped the Crusaders in the table, but the English team had the better of the two in the semi-final to earn their place in the final.

Meanwhile the Knights were overcome by Celtic Devils in their own semi-final, and the Anglo-Welsh final turned out to be a cracker. With the scores all square at full-time the action entered into a drop-off, and the Crusaders got the crucial score to win 5-4.

England Royals emulated their female counterparts to lift the Plate, completing the clean sweep.

CLICK HERE to see all the results from the weekend

CLICK HERE to check out pictures on the EFT Premiership Permit Facebook page