On a beautiful sunny afternoon last week, the St Bede’s and St Joseph’s Catholic College Year 7 girls’ rugby league team drove to Featherstone Rovers’ Post Office Road from Bradford to compete in the Yorkshire Cup Final.

And these inexperienced youngsters continued their remarkable season with a 28-16 victory over Archbishop Sentamu Academy of Hull to move on to the National Championships on May 7.

The atmosphere was fantastic, with music blaring and a small crowd in attendance.

The girls did not seem to be put off by the big stage and were just excited to play, opening the scoring with a try after four minutes, with a great conversion attempt going just wide.

Archbishop came back fighting and got close to the try line but St Bede’s kept them out with some brilliant tackling.

The Bradford school were next to score to go 8-0 up on 10 minutes, but Archbishop were undeterred and came back at us with two quick tries.

They missed both of their conversions too, meaning the score stood at 8-8 after 17 minutes.

Just before half-time, St Bede’s broke through the opposition defence and scored a try under the sticks.

That left a nice conversion on offer to score, making it 14-8 at the break.

Archbishop came out in the second half but their Bradford rivals upped their game and scored anther converted try to move 20-8 in front. 

Archbishop quickly hit back to cross the whitewash two minutes later, minutes later, but a missed conversion kept St Bede’s eight points in front.

The nerves were settled somewhat by a great try for the Bradford side, but one of their youngsters was then forced off with a leg injury.

With no substitutes available, that left St Bede’s down a player with 10 minutes of the game still left.

Archbishop took advantage of this and scored another try to close the gap to 24-16, but were unlucky to miss their conversion attempt again.

With the clock running down, St Bede’s just had to hold out, but instead they bravely decided to go for it in attack.

That bold decision paid off, as the Bradford side dived over the line with two minutes to secured a 28-16 win.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: The two teams stand side by side, with both playing their part in an entertaining cup final.The two teams stand side by side, with both playing their part in an entertaining cup final. (Image: UGC.)

Saima Hussain, head of the Lions Community Foundation, which introduced many of these St Bede’s girls to the sport back in November, said: “The girls deserve huge recognition for their achievement to even get this far. 

“We are playing against big rugby league schools who have a long-standing history.

“Most of our girls hadn't picked up a rugby ball until this year, but their team spirit and hard work is paying off.”