THE Year 8 girls rugby union team at Archbishop Holgate’s School have had a tremendous debut season, with some students’ experiencing rugby for the first time.

The girls’ team qualified for the North Yorkshire finals after winning the York town tournament earlier in the year. The regional finals were held at Ripon RUFC and involved all the winners of surrounding respective town tournaments.

Archbishop’s Holgate’s students progressed through the group stages of the tournament undefeated, eventually winning against Ripon Outwood 3- 0 in the final. Captain Isobelle Avey finished top try-scorer in the tournament.

Their triumph took them through to the North of England regional finals, at Pontefract RUFC, with the incentive of the winners advancing to Twickenham in the National Finals.

They again made the final against Kelvin Hall School from Hull.

After proving their worth and taking the lead twice, and having a try disallowed, they conceded on the hooter to take the game to extra time.

Although they were by far the better team on the day they were unlucky to concede a ‘golden’ try, against the run of play, which meant Kelvin Hall took the title.

Coach Chris Bates said: “The girls have taken to rugby tremendously quickly, considering it is transition contact tackling.

“They showed real guts and determination in every game and deserved to win the final.

“I hope we can maintain our motivation for next season and repeat our good run.

“Some of the girls have been looking for local clubs to take up the sport outside of school. I hope this shows local teams there’s a real pool of talent in the area that could help establish a good girls’ and ladies’ section at their club.”