Year 8 Girls win Semi Final to make it through to National RL Final!!!!
The Year 8 Girls played in Warrington yesterday in the Semi Final of the National RL Schools Competition and in a very close game, they managed to bear St Peters from Manchester in extra time – golden point. This now means that the girls are one of the best 2 teams in the country and will play in a National Final on July 5th at Warrington. The girls will also have the amazing experience of parading around Wembley before the Challenge Cup Final in August.
Sirius Academy West 12 St Peters (Manchester) 8
Sirius Academy started the game well with two good sets of six in the St Peters half, but the St Peters defence was looking good and managed to keep them out. From St Peters first set of six their danger player burst through the Sirius defence and ran almost 90 meters to go over on their first touch of the ball. This shocked the girls, but also made them respond in a positive way as they knew they had a tough game on their hands but would rise to the challenge. From then on in it was all Sirius who played some superb rugby, the forwards really took to the ball in well, with Libby Manning, Elise Hill and Ruby Ellis all making good yards forward. The defence of Sirius found it hard at times to get down their extremely big, strong players, but credit to the Sirius girls, at times they really put their body on the line. It looked like St Peters may have extended their lead as their player broke though the defensive line, but the impressive Holly Page chased the girl all the way the tryline and tackled her over the line forcing her to knock on, in a real game changing moment. Sirius went down the other end after some great runs from Jasmine Fielder and Zeina Hassoun from acting half back catching the St Peters defence struggling to get back in their defensive line. From the quick play the ball Elise Hill ran onto the ball like a steam train and crashed over to level the scores. The score remained 4 – 4 till the halftime break.
The game was evenly matched again in the second half, but St Peters threw everything at us in their attack. Once again a break through saw a try saving tackle from Libby Manning. But the strong players from St Peters powered their way over to take the lead again. The Sirius determination was there for all to see as there was no way they were throwing this one away. Alisha Gowen came into her own and the St Peters defence could not handle her fierce runs. Rugby Ellis and Elise Hill once again made drives towards the St Peters line and it was captain Jasmine Fielder who sent a dummy left and then spotted a gap to the right to scoot over from close range. The scorline was 8 – 8 with 5 minutes to go. Both sides had opportunities to win the game, St Peters broke through and went to put the ball down under the sticks, but the tracking back from Alisha Gowans forced another error from them over the tryline. Sirius ended the game near the St Peters tryline and if they had gone left they would have had a walk in, but kept going into the St Peters players, as the final whistle went at 8 – 8 and into golden point.
Sirius had to defend like Trojans as the St Peters side looked dangerous going forward, but they stood strong and when Sirius finally had the ball in hand they looked to have a lot more energy and played some good fast rugby, catching St Peters offside on two occasions to get them near their tryline. On the second tackle there was a 4 player overload to the left as St Peters struggled to set their line and the quick thinking from Ruby Ellis saw her grubber kick the ball into the in goal area, Amber Leake was on the same wave length and chased the ball, diving on it to ground the ball for a TRY and win the game for the Sirius side!!
Please congratulate this very determined and talented Sirius Academy Year 8 Girls squad a MASSIVE congratulations on their performance, attitude and amazing achievement. I am a very proud coach and cannot think of a group of girls who deserve this more, it just proves how commitment to training and working hard as a team can get you the rewards!
SQUAD: Jasmine Fielder (captain), Elise Hill, Alisha Gowen, Maci Mae Campbell, Eden Greenwood Laws, Zeina Hassoun, Libby Manning, Holly Page, Paige Walker, Amber Leake, Megan Britton, Ruby Ellis (Year 7), Ruby Bennett (Year 7) and Sienna Longley (Year 7)
Special thanks to Miss Lowe for her continued support with the girls rugby.
