Bath swoop to claim 2021/22 University crown

Bath Hawks held off Exeter Hurricanes to not just win the Cup title at the final University National Touch Series event of 2021/22, but to take home the overall season crown as well.

Bath and Exeter have been the two leading university clubs for a number of years, and their final was as competitive as would be expected.

With double-points on offer in the final round of the season the game became a winner-take-all shoot out, as Bath’s better record in terms of matches won over the course of the season.

It was no surprise that the sun which had drenched Nottingham all day that many players and supporters stayed until the end of the action, and they were rewarded by a great final. The teams traded blows in the first half, before Bath began to pull away in the second half.

Exeter did fight back late on, but the Hawks had done enough, winning 6-5.

Nottingham Trent beat Loughborough 1 in the 3^rd/4^th place play-off, with Bristol beating Cardiff in the 5^th/6^th play-off and Durham beating Leeds 1 in the 7^th/8^th play-off, but the competitiveness of the Uni NTS was shown by the fact that all of these play-off matches were won by just the one try.

This was the case in the Plate final as well, with Exeter 2 ensuring that their university took home some silverware, beating Bath 2 4-3.

The Bowl/Shield was the largest it had been all season with 10 teams, including Manchester, Nottingham and Loughborough 3 all competing for the first time,

Manchester had had their previous two attempted entries in tournaments stymied by poor weather, but they made the most of this opportunity to take home the Bowl, Loughborough 3 winning the Shield.

MVPS for the Round were Steffan Prytherch (Cardiff) and Izzy Penniceard (Nottingham Trent).

Many thanks as always to all the teams, referees and support staff for their efforts throughout what has been a great University NTS season!