Sirius Academy Year 8 Girls runners up in Yorkshire Cup Final
Sirius Academy West 4 Corpus Christie 38
After beating Castleford Academy in the Yorkshire semi final last month, the girls played current National Champions Corpus Christie in the Yorkshire Cup Final at Featherstone Rovers RLFC last night.
Unfortunately last weeks National Competition, where they topped their group, came at an expense as they picked up three injuries to key players – Elise Hill, Enola Aitcheson and Paige Walker who were all unable to feature in the final. Three Year 7’s were brought in to replace them – Ruby Jackson Macy Mickelham and Ruby Bennett. Also, the talented Alisha Gowans rejoined the team after making a big impact in Year 7.
The game started evenly matched, with both teams looking good in defence. But it was Corpus Christie who broke the deadlock as their big forwards powered over for a couple of tries. Corpus were on the front foot and took a 16 – 0 lead, but credit to our Sirius girls who did not give up and scored a superb team try of their own which saw Holly Paige show great footwork to go over in the corner. This gave Sirius some hope as the strong running from Libby Manning and Ruby Ellis caused Corpus Christie all sorts of problems. Smart play from dummy half Jasmine Fielder was also gaining Sirius good yards forward. The halftime score was 16 – 4 in favour of Corpus Christie.
Unfortunately the second half didnt start well again for Sirius as Corpus took advantage of an error near the Sirius line. Another blow for Sirius as key player Ruby Ellis had to leave the field of play with a slight knock to the knee. Zeina Hassoum and Amber Leake came into the game more and looked dangerous in attack, but the defence of Sirius was not moving up quickly enough as the hot conditions took its toll on a very big pitch as Corpus Christie ran away with the game.
This was an amazing experience for the girls playing at a Championship Stadium, and they have done tremendously well to get to the Yorkshire Final, unfortunately it wasn’t to be this time, especially with so many key players out missing, but these group of girls are extremely talented with a great attitude and will com back stronger from this.
Next up for the girls is the National Semi final when they take on St Peters at Warrington on Tuesday.
Please congratulate the girls on reaching the Yorkshire Cup Final and wish them luck for next week.
Squad: Jasmine Fielder, Holly Paige, Amber Leake, Zeina Hassoum, Megan Britton, Alisha Gowans, Maci Mae Campbell, Eden Greenwood Laws, Libby Manning, Ruby Ellis (Year 7), Ruby Jackson (Year 7), Ruby Bennett (Year 7) and Macy Mickelham (Year 7)
Special thanks to Miss Low for her support with the team.
