Sirius Academy Year 11 Girls Rugby League team lose out to Cas High
Sirius Academy 6 Cas High 30
The Year 11 girls went to the local rugby league festival at Castleford Panthers expecting to play three or four different schools, but only reigning National Champions turned up, which meant a 20 minute each way game was to be played. This was naturally going to be a tough test for the Sirius year 11 girls, which actually consisted of 7 Year 10’s and 7 year 11’s.
The game started well for the Sirius team as they attacked well for their set of six, followed by a good kick down field on the last. But the Sirius defence was not as organised as it should have been and Castleford exploited the gaps on numerous occasions, running in three tries in the first half. Sirius was chasing the game and trying to force the pass, which was not coming off for them, giving the ball away in dangerous positions. Carmen Coates and Louise Turner were willing runners, taking the ball up well, as was Megan Kay, but losing captain Paris Turpin with a shoulder injury in the first half was also a big loss for the Sirius team, and they just could not get into any good field positions. Some good runs from Jess Gray and Chloe Gray on their debuts was a real plus point for the year 11’s, as well as some of the year 10’s really standing strong against an year above them.
The second half saw Sirius defend their try line better, Jess Gray again leading the way, putting in some big hits. Shannon Kay at acting half back was working hard to try and take the ball to the line, but lack of support let Sirius down when on the attack, at times there was space out wide, but they did not react quick enough to get the ball away to Olivia Young on the right. Robyn Everett came on as substitute and also impressed in the early stages of the second half, and it was Sirius who was first on the scoreboard, a superb cross field kick from Megan Atkinson found Ebony Hepworth on the right wing, who dived on the bouncing ball in the in goal area for their first points of the game, Ebony also converted, making the score line 18 – 6. Castleford responded well and scored from the restart, after again some sloppy, disorganised defence. The final score was 30 points to 6 in favour of the strong Castleford team. The Sirius team will need to learn from this and work hard in the next few training sessions in preparation for the Yorkshire Festivals at Oulton on 6th February. They certainly have the potential, but need to match their skill level with enthusiasm and organisation.
Squad: Paris Turpin, Shannon Kay, Courtney Ferrie, Louise Turner, Robyn Everett, Megan Kay (Yr 10) , Carmen Coates (Yr 10), Megan Atkinson (Yr 10), Jessica Gray, Shannon Armstrong, Ebony Hepworth (Yr 10), Olivia Young (Yr 10), Chloe Gray, Esther Godwin (Yr 10)
Special thanks to Janice Hall for her support with the team and for driving the mini-bus.