More finalists for the 2023 inspiresport Champion Schools Finals at Kingston Park in Newcastle have been confirmed after a thrilling day of Rugby League at Leigh Sports Village.
Champion Schools is the Rugby Football League’s flagship schools competition and is now being run in partnership with inspiresport and the remaining teams have battled it out to confirm their place at Finals Day on July 7.
The Year 8’s kicked the day off with a fixture between Castleford Academy and Kingswood Academy - Castleford have a strong pedigree in the competition and their Year 8 Boys produced a dominant 42-4 win over Kingswood to book their place in the Final. The second was a clash between Bridgewater High and Sirus Academy West and it was Warrington’s Bridgewater who progressed to the final after beating Sirus 30-16.
Standish Community High School have booked themselves into yet another National Final and will be looking to go one step further than last season after they shared the spoils against Ryburn Valley High School in the Year 8 division – the Wigan side successfully overcame Great Sankey in this year’s semi-finals. They will face Bridgewater High who defeated Ryburn Valley in a tight 16-12 clash.
The final fixtures of the day were between the Year 10 Boy’s - St Peters Catholic High School were the first team to qualify for the final after a 26-6 victory over Archbishop Sentamu and their opponents will be the current Year 9 Champions, Castleford Academy, who had a convincing 22-0 win against Winifred Holtby.
The RFL’s National Education Manager, Andrea Murray, says:
“The standard of Rugby League in schools seems to get better every year! Once again we have seen some outstanding individual and team performances at the semi-finals and excitement starts to build now for what will no doubt be an excellent spectacle of Rugby League at finals day in Newcastle”
The final of the Year 7 Boys competition will again be played at Wembley on August 12 with Archbishop Sentamu Academy set to take on Bedford High School in the Steven Mullaney Memorial Game, you can read more about their journey’s to the final here.
