Year 7 Girls – Yorkshire Rugby League Champions!!

[09 May 2013]

The Year 7 Girls were crowned Yorkshire Rugby League Champions for the first ever time, after defeating a strong Castleford Academy side 48 – 24, at the Big Fellas Stadium, home of Featherstone Rovers RLFC.

Right from the kick off Sirius looked up for this one, and from the kick off to Castleford, their defence stood strong, resulting in a handover after the 6th tackle. From the first play the ball from Sirius Academy Kayleigh Waller showed her strength and speed as she went through the Castleford defence with ease to make the scoreline 6 – 0, after Mia Duke converted. It was Castlefords turn to attack and when Sirius were too eager in defence, they gave two back to back penalities away for offside, and from 5 yards out they were unable to stop the big Castleford forward from barging over the line. From then on in, it was all Sirius Academy. Captain Mia Duke was next on the scoresheet after a fine mazey run, which saw her wriggle out of numerous tackles and find some space out wide, also coverting her own try. From the tap restart it was the Sirius defence that impressed, with Molly Bibgy, Saffron Jones and Victoria Godwin standing strong, there was no way through for the Castleford side, who was getting very frustrated with how good the Sirius defensive line was, and again had to turnover the ball on the last tackle. Waller from pratically her own tryline went no less than 80 yeards, to go over for her second, making the score 18 – 6. Castleford tried to go around Sirius in their next attack, but Molly Bigby, Jess Delph an Rio Campbell had other ideas as they bundled them into touch. From the resulting scrum, some great distribution from Ellie Cone gave space for Waller to run 60 metres for her hat-trick, going in at the halftime break Sirius Academy 24 Castleford 6.

From the kick off for the second half a rare error from Sirius gave Castleford some good field position, but again the defence stood strong. Once Sirius got hold of the ball and made some good drives from Georgia Wardell and Amelia Longden, it was then Mia Duke who scooted well from acting half back, finding the gaps in the Castelford defence to go over for her second of the game. Substitutions were made with Laura Roper, Jamie Watson and Ruby Randell, coming on for the impressive Jess Delph, Emily Andrew and Rio Cambell. But it was Castleford who were next to score, with a good team try as the Sirius girls seemed to tire and pick up a few niggling injuries. Sirius, not to be outdone scored another try of their own, and who else but Waller, straight from the tap re-start, the Castleford team just could not cope with her as she went over for her fourth. Castleford again would not lie down and came back with another try, but again, Sirius went straight down the other end and scored a fine try, with Mia Duke once again finding some space from acting half back. Ellie Cone also got over for awell deserved try, after some great support play, showing a clean pair of heels as she outpaced the cover defence. Sirius then had lots of defensive work to do as Castleford had three sets of six one their line, but it was just too much to ask and another crash over from short range made the score 48 – 18, another conselation try in the dying seconds for Castleford made the final score 48 – 24, with Sirius Academy coming out well deserved winners.

Kayleigh Waller walked away with a well deserved Player of the Match Award.

Next up for the talented Year 7 Rugby Girls is the National Finals, which take place in Derby on Tuesday 21st May.

Please congratulate the full squad on their success, attitude and behaviour. I am so proud of each and every one of them!

Victoria Godwin, Molly Bigby, Amelia Longden, Kayleigh Waller, Mia Duke, Ellie Cone, Georgia Wardell, Laura Roper, Saffron Jones, Jessica Delph, Rio Cambell, Emily Andrew, Jamie Watson, Ruby Randell

Special thanks to Natasha Pearson for her continued support with the team and Jon Flatman for support on the day (and the updates on twitter!)

Test link

Test link