Castleford Academy 42-18 West Lakes Academy
By Dan Richardson
A dominant display from Castleford Academy saw them presented as Year 8 Girls National Champions as player of the match Frankie Cowell scored a hat-trick to help her side beat West Lakes Academy 42-18.
Castleford Academy opened the scoring inside the first minute as Aimee-Leigh Wood broke away down the wing, spinning out of tackles to score in the corner and Savannah Gaitley was successful with her conversion attempt. Just minutes later Castleford’s number four, Frankie Cowell made a fantastic break from her own half and strolled over with Gaitley converting again to make it 12-0 inside the first five minutes.
Half way through the first half and West Lakes got one back through Olivia Brinsden who converted her own try. West Lakes continued to pile on the pressure and eventually got their reward as Maddie Hawthorne got over the line with just a minute to spare before the half time whistle. Brinsden was successful with her second conversion making 12-12 at half time.
Castleford got themselves back in front early in the second half as Tally Bryer went crashing over from close range, this time it was Abbie-May Millward who added the extra two points. Cowell got her second of the match shortly after with a serge of pace down the wing to score in the corner. Millward continued Castleford’s perfect conversion rate as she was successful with her second attempt of the match.
Almost replicating the first half, Cowell’s try was followed by a hit back from West Lakes as Brinsden got her second try, this time after some quick thinking from dummy half to dive over. Brinsden again converting her own try took her points tally to 14 points so far in the match. However, Castleford began asserting their dominance first with a try from Shelby Chiunye and then another try which completed Cowell’s hat-trick after she went through the middle of the defence to score.
Both tries were converted by Millward making the score 36-18. In the final minutes of the match Bryer got her second try after sprinting round the outside of the defence, Gaitley was back on kicking duties to convert the final attempt of the game with the final score 42-18.
