YORK Valkyrie Under 19s assistant coach Nic Caldwell was left “over the moon” with their first ever run out against Huddersfield Giants yesterday evening.

The Valkyrie’s youngsters lost out to their opponents 44-30 in a high-scoring encounter at York St John’s Sports Park, but showed a lot of promise against an established Giants outfit.

First-team players Liv Whitehead, Jess Sharp and Chloe Smith all crossed for the Valkyrie, alongside Chevelle Clarke and Alisha Roper, and Caldwell was delighted with the team’s maiden performance.

“I was absolutely over the moon with it.” he enthused.

“I think that the performance, the effort and the attitude by the girls, for a first competitive run out against an experienced and quite competent team in Huddersfield, they were brilliant to say that we’ve only been together since the turn of the year.

“I think that there were some really, really star performances – we were aided by the first team girls who really stood out – but some of our own girls, I thought that they were brilliant.

“Had a couple more of little decisions gone in our favour, we could have probably nicked that at the end I think.

“I think that experience told," he added. "I think that one of their girls got three or four tries, she’s an experienced campaigner and has scored a lot of tries for the first team.

“We had our own first team girls who really excelled, but it could have been a different story if we’d have had a little bit more endeavour at the end.

“It gives us a lot of confidence and gives us a really good benchmark for not only this season, but the years going forward.

“It’s one of them but we go again at Warrington on Sunday, which I think that we’ll have a positive result.

“Once a team starts to gel, and some of the girls’ game sense starts to mature, I think that we’re going to have a team on our hands.”