Twenty eight teams from eight counties and four regions will descend on Letchworth next month for one of the biggest one-day girls’ rugby tournaments the region has ever seen, and certainly one the biggest tournaments Letchworth have ever hosted.

Hertfordshire Girls Sevens 2006 will include representatives from just about every girls’ team in East Anglia, along with teams from Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, and Middlesex.

The tournament illustrates the enormous growth in girls’ rugby over the past few years. It is less than two years since the first girls’ rugby tournament in the county took place – a tag rugby competition in Hemel Hempstead - which featured around 10 teams.

Last year this was replaced with a proper "Sevens" at Cheshunt which attracted around 14 sides from Hertfordshire and the neighbouring counties. This year’s edition at Letchworth will dwarf that.

Some 300 girls - from Market Harborough to the Essex coast, and from London to Norfolk – will be packing the North Hertfordshire ground for six hours of intense competition.

Among the favourites will be Welwyn Warriors, who have been unbeaten against East Region opposition in both the Under-14 and Under-17 age groups. But it won’t be easy for them - in the Under 17 event up against last year’s finalists Hertford, Essex side Basildon – the traditional powerhouse of East Anglian rugby – and much-fancied Holt & West Norfolk, as well as the hosts Letchworth, and big-name sides such as Saracens and Wasps.

Also among their rivals for the Under 14 competition will be an impressive Milton Keynes team, and Kibworth from Leicestershire.

The day will also showcase the next generation of girls’ rugby by kicking off with the final trial for North Hertfordshire’s new district U11 team.

Play at Legends Lane begins at 10.30, and the finals are timetabled to start from 3.30pm.