Year 10 Girls RL Yorkshire Final: Sirius Academy West 12 St John Fisher 28
The Sirius Academy West Year 10 Girls rugby team lost in the Yorkshire Final against a strong St John Fisher side. The two teams have met every year in the Yorkshire Cup since Year 7, with Sirius narrowly winning two of those and one ending in a draw. The depleted Sirius Academy side was without Kayleigh Waller, Cameron Shakespear, Mia Husband and Rio Cambell, with six of the girls also playing in the Year 11 Yorkshire Final 24 hours previous, which looked to have also taken its toll on the girls.
The game started well for Sirius Academy with captain Mia Duke able to find to some out wide to go over in the corner. The defence of Saffron Jones and Amelia Longden was strong as the St John Fisher side struggled to break though in the middle of the field. But St John Fisher had another dimension to their game and scored a well worked try in the corner. Sirius tried hard to extend their lead with Danny Waters and Molly Bigby taking the ball up well and trying to find that gap in their defence. Some good last ditch defending on the wing from Emily Andrew and Ellie Cone prevented St John Fisher from scoring again out wide. The game was evenly matched for the next ten minutes with both sides working hard in defence, but then a mistake by Sirius in their own half gave St John Fisher some good field position and they crashed over from close range. The halftime score was Sirius Academy 6 St John Fisher 10.
The second half saw St John Fisher get an early try, which stunned the Sirius side, but credit to the girls they really stuck at it as Danny Fulton and Shannon Jorden started to break through some tackles in the middle. St John Fisher looked to have extended their lead further, but Molly Bigby had other ideas and made a superb tackle on the big prop forward to prevent her from getting the ball down. But the Sirius defence struggled to get back and fatigue started to set in for the players who had played the previous night and St John Fisher crashed over again. Sirius showed great character and determination to go over for the next try of the game as Mia Duke and Danny Waters stepped their way to near the St John Fisher try line, and quick thinking from Molly Bigby saw her go through and gap to narrow the scoreline to 22 – 12 with five minutes remaining. Sirius did everything they could to get the next try and when the bounce of the ball from a high kick went in favour of the St John Fisher she went the full length of the pitch to seal the game for St John Fisher.
The Sirius Academy side can be proud of their gutsy performance, it was obviously a big blow to the side missing some quality players from the squad, but for many of them to play their second Yorkshire Final over two consecutive nights deserve special praise, as well as the three Year 9’s that stepped up, they never gave up, which was fantastic to see.
Please congratulate the squad on their performance, attitude and behaviour:-
Amelia Longden, Emily Andrew, Jamie Watson, Ellie Cone, Danielle Waters, Danielle Fulton, Mia Duke, Saffron Jones, Jess Delph, Georgia Wardell, Molly Bigby, Shannon Jordan, Chloe Dunn
Special thanks to Miss Williams for her continued support with the girls rugby.
