Leeds Rhinos Foundation in partnership with Sky Try capped off another year of high school rugby league delivery in Leeds with the finals of the Sky Try 9s High School Rugby competition, involving over 350 school rugby league players in year 7,8 and 9.
The competition which started in February, has seen over 33 schools take part from across Leeds and the wider region with three qualifying festivals taking place for each year group prior to the finals event at Lawnswood last week.
The programme organized and staffed by the Leeds Rhinos Foundation, now in its second year, has been devised to offer schools the opportunity compete in more competitive rugby during the school year, through the small sided games that use a 9’ a side format, all to encourage teams to rotate players and get more pupils involved in the sport.
As a reward for the players competing in the tournament, Leeds Rhinos Stars Ryan Hall and Carl Ablett were on hand at the finals event to meet and greet the players, present medals to the winning schools and take photos with the Leeds Rhinos 2015 treble of trophies.
Ryan Hall, who came through the school system in Leeds at Royds High School commented on the appeal of the programme:
“I know when I was coming through at school in Leeds over 10 years ago it was always great to play in school tournaments and test yourself against some of other players in the city coming through the school system, so having a programme like this is beneficial on so many levels.
“The 9’s element is a good concept for the schools, who can not only get all the kids involved throughout the programme with the amount of games, but it also tests important aspects of the game like teamwork, tackling technique and skill level.”
As well as developing the game on the field, the programme has also provided a unique opportunity for the Leeds Rhinos Foundation to involve a number of volunteers over the past few months, highlighted in the finals with 19 volunteers helping to coordinate the festival over 11 pitches in use during the afternoon.
9 junior referees from the Leeds Rhinos Foundation’s Ref with the Rhinos programme were able to gain refereeing experience by officiating games during the finals and during qualifying with Sports Management students from local universities and pupil’s from schools interested in a career in sports also able to gain experience of running sports competitions by assisting in the running of the competition.
Competitions Coordinator for the Leeds Rhinos Foundation Lois Forsell, who organised this year’s competition said:
“Our Sky Try 9’s competition this year has been really well taken up the Leeds Schools with many of them attending all of the rounds on offer and joining us for the finals day this afternoon, so we have had lots of 11-14 year old's playing regularly rugby and also many of them playing for the first time which is great for the game."
“A massive thankyou to Sky Try who help fund our delivery with clubs and schools allowing us to provide more competition and coaching outside of their curriculum P.E to continue to develop the game.”
Six trophies were handed out to winning teams from the competitions, which had been organised through a seedings system in qualifying which provided a competition for all schools involved on finals day.
In the year 7 competitions, Corpus Christi College’s year 7’s team were Sky Try Champions with Temple Moor winning the Sky Try Cup competition. Temple Moor Year 8’s won the Sky Try Champions Trophy in the year 8’s competition with Abbey Grange winning the Sky Try Cup in the year 8s competition and in the year 9s competition, Morley Academy were victorious in the Sky Try Champions tournament with Cardinal Heenan winning the Sky Try Cup.
2016 winners:
Y7 Sky Try Champions- Corpus Christi Catholic College
Y7 Sky Try Cup Winners- Temple Moor
Y8 Sky Try Champions- Temple Moor
Y8 Sky Try Cup Winners- Abbey Grange
Y9 Sky Try Champions- Morley Academy
Y9 Sky Try Cup Winners- Cardinal Heenan