Tigers roar to Shield success

CASTLEFORD TIGERS Women wrapped up the League Leaders Shield last night (Tuesday) with a 44-0 win over York City Knights at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle.

And for coach Lindsay Anfield, the trophy is no less than her players deserve after winning 13 straight League games this year.

“We’ve been aiming for this all season, but for me, this is what I have been working towards for the three years since the club started. To finally actually get some silverware with this group of girls is amazing,” said Anfield.

“We have been the most consistent team all so the girls really deserve this. From a coaches point of view, it’s probably more rewarding to win the League Leaders Shield because you know that your team has constantly performed well throughout the season, rather than just in a one-off game.

“It was a different sort of Cup on the line on Tuesday, but we still haven’t managed to nail down how to approach a final and play it one. Sometimes the girls don’t cope well with pressure either, so if we now want to go on and reach the final that’s something we’ll really need to think about and focus on.

“There are a lot of hard lessons we can learn from our Challenge Cup Final defeat. The more games like that we play in the better we’ll be, but we don’ want to keep going to them and losing, so we need to learn those lessons quickly.”

Tara Stanley and Lacey Owen both score twice in the first half, and Millie Walsh also touched down as the Tigers ran into a 26-0 lead at the break. A Rhiannon Marshall hat-trick and a Tamzin Renouf try in the second half secured the win in front of a crowd of 1,303.