A traditional curtain-raiser to the Challenge Cup final, the Champion Schools cup final has a habit of producing stars of the future and moments to last a lifetime. The world’s biggest rugby league knockout competition, secondary schools from Year 7 (under-12s) to Year 11 (under-16s) take part over the school year to find the boys and girls Champion School for each age group.
And each year ahead of the Challenge Cup final, the Year 7 boys final takes place, with the young players given the amazing opportunity to play on the pitch at Wembley Stadium. Named The Steven Mullaney Memorial Game, after a schoolboy player who thrilled television viewers across the country by scoring a superb solo try before the 1986 Challenge Cup final which featured Hull KR against Castleford Tigers. Mullaney’s spectacular try helped Wakefield Schools beat St Helens, but the following year this exciting young talent was tragically killed in a road traffic accident.
Since being relaunched in 2002, while Hull schools have celebrated a catalogue of successes across the age groups, only Archbishop Sentamu Academy have won the Wembley curtain raiser, their victory coming two years ago ahead of Rovers’ agonising defeat in the final to Leigh Leopards.
Hull KR are back in the final and so are Hull schools, with Sirius Academy West Year 7 Boys representing the city having battled through the competition to set up a game against Rainford High School (St Helens). Not only will Hull have two teams representing the city at Wembley, but for the reigning Man of Steel Mikey Lewis, he’ll be hoping for a double success as not just a former Sirius school pupil but a winner of the national cup with the Sirius Academy Year 10 Boys in 2015.
Sirius were first to book their place at Wembley after beating St Peters (Wigan) in dramatic fashion at Rochdale Mayfield ARLFC, when they scored a last minute try to win the clash.
Director of Rugby at Sirius Academy Rachel Gay said “This is a dream come true for these boys to be playing on Wembley pitch. It is every sport person’s dream to play at Wembley Stadium, and for these Year 7 boys it is now a reality.
“I must admit, when I did my trials with them back in September there were only a handful of them that played for a club, so I had to recruit more players from in their PE lessons. Luckily rugby is first on the PE curriculum, so I managed to pick up some students who showed real athleticism and skill. We started the season by beating two local schools in the West Hull League, which saw us through to the Yorkshire stages, where we didn’t have it all our own way, and finished second in the league, which meant we faced Archbishop Sentamu from Hull in a play-off game for who went through to the National Stages.
“We managed to come back from 12-0 down to win the game 24-12 for a spot in the last-16 of the competition, this gave us a lot of confidence as we really started believe we could go all the way.
“Eight of the boys who had never played rugby before attending Sirius Academy West were starting to really enjoy it, and joined a newly formed local community team – Hull Knights. The more rugby we were playing, the better we were getting, and we went on to beat Glantaf, who were seeded the best team in Wales.
“Then we beat another Hull team in Malet Lambert in the quarter-final. The semi final was something I will never forget, to score the winning try in the last play of the game is what dreams are made of, and they fully deserve their place in the final. Lots of parents had travelled across to Rochdale that day to support the boys, and when we went over for that last try the scenes were incredible.
“I would just like to thank the RFL for making this possible, our sponsors for the National Cup Final – Youngs Foods and Les Holland Coaches, Sirius Academy West for their outstanding continued support with the rugby and also the parents, carers and the wider community for their incredible support throughout our journey to Wembley.”