@Acleme I think you need to interrogate this a bit.
“badly wants to go to Russell Group"? what does that mean? Russell Group is IMHO a fairly disparate group of unis, obviously in terms of the student offer, but also in terms of standard.
No one would seriously rank Oxford at the same level as Cardiff or Southampton unis, perfectly fine tho both those unis are. And to dismiss any non-RG for on this basis would mean dismissing a lot of unis that can hold their own on many levels against the bulk of the RG (Bath, Leicester, Lancaster, At Andrews, Loughborough).
I feel that a blind need (if it is blind – it feels like it from your posts) to go to an RG uni suggests a bit more research would be helpful. I cannot imagine the same person enjoying the uni offer at (say) Cambridge, UCL and Warwick. DD hated Sheffield and loved Warwick for example.
She needs to look at the unis where she has the required grades and think whether she would prefer a city uni, a campus one, one close to home (wherever that is) or further away; does she need cheaper accommodation or is that not an issue? Why London? Is a big city important? in that case maybe look at Leeds or Manchester.