University of Edinburgh captain Sarah Law believes her side have finally banished the demons of seasons past after being crowned BUCS Rugby Union Championship winners.

Law and co had become accustomed to quarter-final heartbreak, with Thursday’s clash their first major shot of the title as they descended on Twickenham for the grand finale.

And they took the opportunity with aplomb, running out rampant 48-5 winners over Northumbria University and showing the form that had seen them top the regular league season after the round-robin stage.

That was largely down to a pair of hat-tricks from Megan Gaffney and Rhona Lloyd, though skipper Law was quick to praise the work of the entire squad over the winter.

“It feels absolutely fantastic to have gone to Twickenham and won the title, it’s something we’ve always talked about for a long time and often fallen short of at the quarter-final stage,” she said.

“The squad we had this year has worked so hard and we were really excited beforehand, so to finish it off and do justice to the hard work they’ve put in is fantastic.

“This year the girls have put that extra effort in, doing more skills off their own back to be prepared for these finals. We’ve been disappointed to have good seasons and not finish it off in the past so to win the league and the final is amazing.

“The atmosphere was rather different than what we’re used to do and normally we play in five-degree weather, so everyone was really excited.”

Edinburgh came out of the blocks firing at Twickenham, going 10-0 up at the break – a score they only looked like adding to in an impressive second-half showing.

Their game preceded the men’s competition, marking the end of a season which had seen the debut of BUCS Super Rugby, a new tournament pitting the eight best rugby institutions from around the country in one division.

And for Law, enjoying her last BUCS outing as a final-year Applied Maths student, the opportunities given to her and her team are something to remember for a long time.

“We spoke in the dressing room about what had gone before and missing out, so the message was to go out there and work hard for the other 21 players,” she added, “Twickenham is not something you get to do every day so we wanted to make the most of it.

“It is the home of rugby and you see the greats of the game play there so BUCS has given the girls a massive opportunity.

“Women’s rugby has been growing hugely over the past few years and the BUCS Rugby Union Championship gives us a great chance to showcase that. A lot of our girls had not got into rugby until coming to uni so to be able to do that and have people come down and support us is wonderful.”

BUCS Super Rugby is a new national league, bringing together the eight best men’s university rugby teams in the country. The league is run by British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) and powered by Rugby Vertical. For more info visit www.bucs.org.uk/superrugby