After stunning Women’s Rugby League off the pitch with their high-profile recruitment drive, York City Knights followed up where it matters by claiming a dramatic 30-24 victory over Wigan Warriors in the Quarter Finals of the Betfred Women’s Challenge Cup.
All of York’s new signings made an impact with a hat-trick from Grace Field and a brilliant kicking and ball-handling performance from Rhiannon Marshall leading the way – in a match that was shown live on TheSportsman.com, and will challenge the Sky Sports editors who have to boil it down to a highlights package.
Wigan also contributed handsomely to the contest with a number of excellent tries of their own, none better than Rachel Thompson’s second-half score after a slick handling move.
Paul Cooke, the former Hull FC and Hull KR stand-off who had been as captivated as everyone else in his role as match summariser, then produced the Semi Final draw which seemed inevitable – York will face Castleford, who showed their battling qualities to end a difficult week with a 26-6 win at Warrington.
That means the other Semi Final will be a real heavyweight battle between St Helens and Leeds Rhinos.
The Rhinos, who were Challenge Cup winners in 2018 and 2019, continued their prolific start to the season with a 70-0 demolition of Bradford Bulls, with Fran Goldthorp scoring four of their tries.
But Saints have also been in powerful form and maintained their 100% record with a 44-10 win against a plucky Featherstone team, with a first-half hat-trick from Amy Hardcastle and two tries for Faye Gaskin.
Details of the venue and coverage of the Semi Finals, which will both be played on Saturday May 22, will be confirmed early this week.
The BBC confirmed on Saturday that the Final, which will be played before the men’s Semi Finals on Saturday June 5, will be shown live on BBC2 for the first time.
