By Abby Cromack-
Crawshaw Academy hosted a Year 6 Girls Tag Rugby tournament yesterday, where around 150 girls from twelve Leeds schools participated in the event.
Split into four groups, the tournament saw the competing schools play out a series of tightly-contested games, with some brilliant tries scored.
Shadwell, Churwell, Cobden, Valley View, Brodetsky and Bramham Schools all progressed to the quarter finals. The games were once again very close and some great defence was shown by the qualifying teams, with Bramham, Brodetsky and both Shadwell teams going through to the semi-finals.
It was to be Shadwell’s A and B teams leading the way from this point, with both sides comfortably winning their semi-finals to take them into the showpiece final. After a back-and-forth contest, Shadwell A eventually came out as champions, taking the trophy back to their school for the fourth successive year.
All the teams that made it through into the quarter finals were presented medals by members of the Leeds Rhinos Women’s squad, which included Danika Prim, Aimee Staveley and Sophie Robinson.
Speaking to Aimee Staveley, she said that events like these are important to get girls into rugby as they raise awareness of the sport and gives more girls the opportunity to give it a try.
“Tournaments like this are fantastic, because they enable girls them to experience playing the sport and being part of a team, which hopefully will encourage them to carry on playing,” said Staveley.
“Obviously the success of Leeds Rhinos Women and the development work we are doing with Leeds Rhinos Foundation has been vitally important in encouraging more girls to get into playing rugby league, especially due to the Women’s team being out there and receiving more media coverage than ever before.
“There’s always been plenty of Women and Girls playing rugby league, but the recent growth of the sport and the rise in numbers participating is great to see, making grassroots events like this really important.”
To see the full photo gallery, visit our Facebook page HERE.
For more information about our Girls Schools Rugby League programme, contact lois.forsell@leedsrhinosfoundation.org,
