Four Leeds Schools have set off on the long but exciting journey of reaching the Champion Schools National Final which takes place at Wembley Stadium as the curtain raiser to the Challenge Cup Final.
Year 7 boy’s from Temple Moor, Corpus Christi, Woodkirk and Morley Academy have all progressed through a number of local fixtures to qualify for the Regional stages of the RFL’s flagship Secondary Schools competition.
Schools from across the City recently competed in a number of local festivals that culminated in a Finals Days at the Leeds Rugby Academy to decide the four teams that would qualify and represent Leeds in the next rounds of the tournament. The Year 7 contests proved to be extremely competitive and entertaining that eventually witnessed Temple Moor overcome Corpus Christi in a nail-biting Final to be crowned Champions of Leeds.
The boys’ will now prepare for the tough task of competing against qualifiers from across the region to earn the right to take one step closer to the goal of playing on the famous Wembley turf. The Leeds Rhinos Foundation will be working closely with the teams to provide coaching services to assist the already talented youngsters in their bid for glory. Leeds Rhinos High Schools Development Officer Russell Parker said “the Wembley weekend is a great incentive and a once in a lifetime opportunity and after observing these teams in action I believe that there is some fantastic talent in the City who will continue to make their schools proud”.
Temple Moor, Corpus Christi, Woodkirk and Morley Academy will continue the long tradition of Leeds schools in this competition, most recently Bruntcliffe school who reached the Year 10 Final in 2013. Further Temple Moor have some history at the Year 7 age group after reaching the Wembley Final in 2010 where they narrowly lost out. Hopefully, with the potential on show, one of our representatives can go one step further this time around and go all the way.