Castleford Academy enjoy Champion Schools hat-trick with Magic final victories

Saturday saw the Academy’s year 8 girls team triumph in their Champion Schools final when they beat Malet Lambert School 16-10 at Kingston Park.

A superb hat-trick from Beau Owens helped Castleford come from behind to claim the title with Olivia Hobbs claiming the match winning try.

The year 9 boys team were also impressive in their final as they defeated Archbishop Sentamu Academy 22-0.

The Hull school restricted Cas to a solitary first half try through Rhys Firth, but could not breach the outstanding Academy defence.

Hardy, Firth and Jack Egley all crossed for further tries in the second half to clinch a richly deserved success.

Castleford Academy’s year 10 girls team could not make it a clean sweep as they lost 18-8 to St John Fisher CVA with Faith Thorpe scoring both their tries.

But there was success on Sunday when the year 7 boys came out on top 18-6 against Warrington’s Bridgewater High School at St James’s Park, Newcastle in the last of the RFL’s 2022 Champion Schools finals that was the curtain raiser at Super League’s Magic Weekend.

The teams were playing for the Steven Mullaney Trophy as the RFL’s flagship schools’ competition returned for the first time since early 2020, when the competition was curtailed by the Covid pandemic.

And there was another piece of silverware for the Castleford team when powerful prop Archie Lunn was chosen as player of the match, winning the Chev Walker Trophy.

The rampaging prop opened the scoring from close range and the score remained 4-0 until early in the second half, when Max Richardson crossed for an unconverted try. Josh Woodhead pounced next and Jaxson Kesik converted.

Although Bridgewater pulled a converted try back it was Cas who had the final word with Nathan Anaman’s try.

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