Sandal rugby girls are crowned national champions in memorable final

The youngsters overcame a Horsham team unbeaten in 36 games when they won the National Cup final 29-19 at Worcester Warriors’ Sixways Stadium.

The girls knew they were in for a tough challenge, but it was one that they had set their sites on at the start of the season and with plenty of fund raising with a Go fund me page, raffle and several donations the girls travelled down the day before.

They also received a new warm-up top from the club and video messages from Sarah Hunter, of England and Sale Sharks.

Sandal were the first into the stadium and could not wait to soak up the atmosphere. A last-minute team huddle and the game was ready to kick off.

Sandal enjoyed a lot of possession in the first half with all 19 girls getting some good time on the pitch. Their forwards were smaller, but won good line-out possession, ran the ball hard and retained possession well.

Some strong runs from Harli, Erin, Keira H and Scarlett set the tone, brilliant ruck work from Harriet, Isla, Amelia and Mal maintained possession and Lissy was faultless in the line-out.

Keira B tackled everything and hit the rucks while the pack managed to get several important turnovers.

An interception in her own half by Connie brought the first try on 10 minutes and a second soon followed from Ebony out wide following some good handling.

Just before half-time player of the game Ebony scored a brilliant solo try, using her strength to break through the first tackle and then evasive running through several would be tacklers. Ella kicked the conversion and it was 17-0.

The second half was closer, but AJ, Ruby and Bree came up with some excellent defensive work.

Cerys was everywhere, distributing from scrum-half to the forwards and the backs, while Ella at stand-off controlled the backs play, putting in some good kicks from hand and releasing the rest of the backs to attack. Izzy, Caitlin, Ebony and Connie made some strong runs.

Horsham scored their first try, but Sandal responded superbly as Connie spun in a tackle to score her second try.

A penalty taken quickly by Connie then led to another try when Ebony ran the length of the pitch to score. Ella’s conversion made it 29-7 with 17 minutes to go.

With more subs to call on, Horsham kept going and went over two late tries but it was not enough as Sandal were victorious and the scenes on the pitch at the end were amazing to see for the travelling friends and families.

The Sandal success story began last July when the girls started their pre-season training with every player (and one coach) recording their time for a Bronco fitness test getting ready for a long season.

Following last year’s Regional Cup success they set the ambitious target of going several steps further and winning the National Cup in 2023.

With several new players joining the team at pre-season it would take time for the girls to settle into their new surroundings but they soon got the chance to start working together with the first game arriving in September.

At the start of October Sandal held their annual girls festival where the U16s went through the tournament unbeaten, beating Houghton in a tense final.

The festival itself was a great spectacle as usual and ended up with some impressive stats – 30 clubs across four age groups. 63 teams, 629 players. 292 volunteer hours. Teams travelled 1305.8 miles from around the UK. The referees ran 130,690 steps while 474 tries were scored.

The only disappointing thing about the day was that the burger sales were capped to 244 as the club ran out.

In the National Cup Sandal beat Littleborough 39-10, Castleford 42-0 and Old Crossleyans 60-7 in pool games.

Three strong performances but unfortunately Sandal lost Millie Carlton in the Castleford game due to a ruptured ACL and unfortunately this was her last game of the season and her presence was missed for the remainder of the season.

The new year, though, brought the round of last 16, the quarter final and the semi-final.

Houghton were up first at Sandal and the girls decided to play on the larger Pugneys pitch, this was a good choice as it allowed them to use their pace and strength to attack the wide channels.

A special mention for Izzy Swallows who strapped her injured hand up and put in a solid 35 minutes and captain Lissy Sampson who played with an injured foot as numbers were low.

It was also great to see Caitlin Cox get her first cup game under her belt after joining the team in the new year.

The sandal parents put on an amazing buffet for the traveling players, and this was the start of the Lucky Cheese Sandwich Mascot.

It was also great that Charlotte Mosley (U18s player) joined the coaches Andy Farmery and Tom Sampson on the side-line, eventually becoming the teams new breakdown coach.

Next up was Liverpool St Helens at Sandal. The only team to beat them in the 21/22 cup run. An amazing game ensued as expected with Liverpool competing excellently in the ruck area and bringing another level of physicality to the game.

Sandal eventually ran out 29-19 winners. Again the parents provided an excellent buffet for the visitors.

The semi-final was against Mansfield against who Sandal had already played several close games this season so they fully expected a tough game.

And that is what they got away from home on Mansfield’s first team pitch, but the girls were victorious and ended up with a 32-19 win.

Sandal RUFC presented each girl with a new warm-up top, well wishes and surprise videos from Sale Sharks Women’s team and a personal message from Sarah Hunter, the newly retired English Union player.

• Anyone who would like to be involved in rugby union can go down to the Sandal club and have a go. Several of the national winning players had never played rugby union before this season and it is clear to see what they have achieved.

Sandal has teams at U12s, U14s, U16s and U18s catering for juniors from school year 7 up to 18-years-old. They also have a ladies team for anybody over 18.