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Astley Community High School vs Castleford Academy
Victoria Park, Warrington, Friday 6 July 2018
The final took place in very warm weather conditions. Castleford started the game the stronger going 12-0 inside the first 10 minutes following a couple mistakes from ACHS. Astley then began to find their feet and pulled the game back to 12-6 on the back of some brave defence and some great attacking play.
The teams looked to be going into the break with 1 try between them, but on the last play of the half Castleford struck with a game breaking blow going into half time 18-6 up.
The first try after half time was always going to be crucial and it was Castleford who once again struck, again on the back of an Astley mistake. Astley then had to dig deep and emotions began to run high. Astley battled bravely until the end of the game but the Castleford defence remained rock solid. Two further tries brought the final score to 36-6, a score line which did not reflect the effort of the Astley girls.
Mr Carbutt stated: "I am very proud of the girls for working so hard all year to achieve their dream of playing in a national final. Although we did not get the result we’d hoped for in the final, this is still an achievement I am very proud of. As a team we were all heartbroken walking off the field and the mood in the changing rooms after the game will be one I will never forget. We now have to channel that feeling into our efforts for 2019. I am sure that once we have taken time to reflect that we will come back stronger from this experience and we will want to do even better next year. The girls were a real credit to our school over the whole weekend and I will be working even harder to help them in 2019 to make sure we put ourselves in that position again.”
Full time score: Astley Community High School 6 - 36 Castleford Academy
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