FOURTEEN schools teams are at Richmond today, and another two will be at Wembley tomorrow, for the 2016 Champions Schools Finals.
The Year 7 Boys’ sides of Castleford Academy and St Peter’s Catholic High, Wigan, will enjoy centre stage on Saturday when they go head-to-head in the Steven Mullaney Memorial Match at Wembley in the traditional curtain-raiser to the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup Final. Leeds youngster Thomas Scott will referee the game in recognition of an impressive year as a match official.
Castleford Academy have taken four teams down to the two-day festival, which gets underway today with seven finals at Richmond. The school will also feature in Friday’s Year 10 Boys’, Year 9 Boys’ and Year 9 Girls’ deciders, while St Peter’s are also in the Year 9 Boys’ clash. St Peter’s RC High of Manchester, meanwhile, are in two Girls’ Finals, at Year 8 and Year 7.
The Year 8 Boys’ game between Glantaff High School (Wales) and Wade Deacon High (Halton) is a repeat of last year’s Year 7 Steven Mullaney Memorial Match. The Welsh-speaking school, which has yet to experience defeat in Rugby League, prevailed 40-6 12 months ago after conceding an early try and are back in the limelight after accounting for Ysgol Y Strade 46-12 in the Welsh Final, subsequently beating Hinchley Wood (London) 42-12, St Bernard’s (Barrow) 26-4 and Saddleworth 50-12 in the national rounds.
Teacher/coach Rhydian Garner said: “We’ve two new wingers since last year, otherwise we’ll be selecting from the same squad as last year.
“We were training up until the end of the summer term and we’ve kicked in again after three weeks off; it’s always difficult to get a full side in training during the school holidays.”
He added: “It’ll be much tougher this year. We shocked them at Wembley and I don’t think they were expecting us to be that good, so we’ve changed our tactics to mix it up.
“Everything went right for us last year, even them scoring as it settled us down and made us turn on the style.
“Hopefully we’ll do it again. Everyone is really looking forward to the whole weekend. Win or lose, we’ll be parading around Wembley Stadium before the Challenge Cup Final, but obviously we’d love it if we were there again as winners.”
The full weekend programme is:
Friday 26 August 2016
From 11.00am
YEAR 10 BOYS
Brooksbank School (Calderdale) v Castleford Academy
YEAR 10 GIRLS
Sirius Academy (Hull) v St John Fisher High (Dewsbury)
YEAR 9 BOYS
Castleford Academy v St Peter’s Catholic High (Wigan)
YEAR 9 GIRLS
Deanery High (Wigan) v Castleford Academy
YEAR 8 BOYS
Glantaff High School (Wales) v Wade Deacon High (Halton)
YEAR 8 GIRLS
Outwood Grange (Wakefield) v St Peter’s RC High (Manchester)
YEAR 7 GIRLS
St John Fisher High (Dewsbury) v St Peter’s RC High (Manchester)
Saturday 27 August 2016
YEAR 7 BOYS
STEVEN MULLANEY MEMORIAL FINAL
Castleford Academy v St Peter’s Catholic High (Wigan)
At Wembley Stadium (1.00pm)
