St-Edwards Girls play at Twickenham

 

On Thursday 31st March, ten year 8 pupils took part in the regional emerging schools tag rugby competition for u13 girls. The team qualified for the event by previously winning the district u13 competition which was held at Longton rugby club.

 

Sixteen teams from all over the central region took part which meant that the standard was going to be very high. The competition had 4 mini leagues with 4 teams in each.

 

In our first game, we were a little nervous and still finding our feet but we managed to win 7 - 5. In our second game we were more settled and comfortably won 7-2. Our third and final match in the group stage only needed to be drawn for us to go through to the knock-out stage but again we were triumphant winning 7 - 5.

 

In the semi-final we played St. John Fisher from Newcastle-under-Lyme, a team we had previously narrowly beaten in the final of the district competition. Once again it proved to be a tense game with St. Edwards eventually winning 7-6.

 

The final was an even more tense affair. At one point we were 2 tries down but we fought back to be winning 3-2. However, every time we scored a try our opponents responded for scoring within 30 seconds or so. The game ended at 8-8. It was now into extra time where the golden try would come into play. i.e. next try wins!

 

Each team desperately wanted to win and each side lost the ball two or three times before Caroline Evenden managed to score a "one-step" winning try (in the case of being tagged you are allowed one more step to reach the try-line). We had won the tournament!

 

The girls had played fantastically and their prize is to now to go to the home of rugby, Twickenham on Saturday 7th May. Here they will have a guided tour of the museum and stadium, have a coaching session with the England women's rugby team and will also play on that famous pitch.

 

To top off a fantastic day Elise Skelding was voted as Player of the Tournament. Elise had dazzled many of the coaches with her changes of direction and pace and her ability to dodge tackles. In addition to this she scored 13 tries!!

 

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St-Edwards Girls play at Twickenham!

 

Ten girls travelled down to London on Friday 6^th May after qualifying to play at Twickenham as regional winners. There were 8 regional winners who would be playing at Twickenham. All 8 squads stayed in a hotel near Heathrow Airport and on Friday evening they met two players from the women’s England team, Katherine Merchant and Rochelle Clark who did a short presentation and a Question and Answer session. There was a photo opportunity and autographs were gained.

 

The following day our girls were up bright and early, wearing their special tops that a parent had kindly had printed for us. We then made the short trip to Kneller Hall which is the Royal Military School of Music. Whilst here we watched part of the Army v Navy Men’s Veterans match and the Army v Navy Women’s match.

 

 

In addition to this, another England player, La Toya Mason, joined Rochelle and Katherine and all 3 led different coaching sessions with the pupils from the 8 schools. This was a fantastic experience.

 

During the morning a draw took place to decide which teams would play before the main event (Army v Navy) at Twickenham and who would play at half-time. Fortunately, we were drawn to play at half time and this meant we would be playing in front of 62,000 people!

 

At Twickenham the girls were provided with a goodie bag which contained a RFU T-shirt and cap. We sat down to watch the U23 Oxbridge team get convincingly beaten by the U23 Combined Services team and then it was onto the pitch for a photo opportunity and presentation.

 

At half time we made our way from the North Stand to the South Stand where we would be playing across the pitch. The girls were both extremely excited and nervous at the same time. Looking up into the crowd we were clearly able to see a banner that some of the parents had especially designed for the occasion. It read ‘St Edwards School Leek…………Go Girls!!’

 

 

The game wasn’t about winning it was more about the experience of playing on the hallowed turf and we were up against an equally strong team from the North East, Roundhay School in Leeds. We drew the game with superb tries from Elise Skelding, Lucy Kelsall and Georgia Clowes.

 

At the end of the game, (which the Army won 44-10) we then had a tour of the Twickenham Museum before making our way back to Leek.

 

I was extremely privileged to take such a wonderful set of girls on this adventure and I was very proud of the way that they conducted themselves both on and off the pitch. My thanks also go to Mavis Weaver who accompanied me on the trip and to the parents that were able to support us on the day.

 

Jason Parrish
Deputy Head
St Edwards Junior High, Leek