This was the first Northumberland Girls rugby Festival of this season and the largest so far with around 200 players taking part from 8 clubs. U13's , U15's and U18's teams were represented from school year 7 to 13.

See Photographs Here

Clubs attending were, Alnwick, Morpeth, Ponteland, Whitley Bay Rockcliffe, Tynedale, Novos and guests from the County Durham area Ryton supported by players from Hartlepool Rovers.

Everyone really enjoyed the day despite getting wet. Some very competitive rugby was on show from U15's and U18's teams, with some players hoping to impress County selectors. The event was fully supported by Alnwick RFC who are very enthusiastic about the development of the girls teams at the club as well as RFU and Northumberland County rugby. A close working partnership between clubs, County, RFU and Active Northumberland has developed over recent years, delivering rugby in schools and supporting clubs. This has lead to over 100% increase in participation levels in schools and clubs in the past 12 months. Alnwick rugby coaches are working closely with RFU development coaches and teachers to deliver after school rugby at the new Duchess High School, and so far we have been delighted with the interest and attendance at the sessions.

U13's - great numbers and lots of smiles on faces of all of those new starters.

Great fun with skills sessions covering contact - scrums - rucking - tackling. Then some excellent touch games. Great potential for the future, the life blood of girls rugby in the county going forward.

U15's - 6 Teams, a day of firsts for many, first line out, first contested 8 player scrum. Some very competitive rugby played on the day.

Alnwick and Novos combined to make a up a full team, Alnvos!. For me this is what rugby is all about. Lots of new friends made, having a great time and made a pretty good scratch side too!

We won against Whitley Bay Rockliffe in our first game 20 – 0 really demonstrating a great variety of play, from forwards drives, fly half and scrum half breaks up the middle and set both wingers away for excellent tries.

In the second match we narrowly lost to Tynedale 2 tries to nil from breakaways, Tynedale are the most established and dominant girls side in the region. So lots of encouragement in holding the score down.

We then moved from the first team pitch to pitch 2 and dominated Ponteland in a 30 – 0 encounter which was a great confidence boost for the team in increasingly difficult conditions, as the rain poured down from leaden skies.

Finally we played local rivals Morpeth over on P3 in a tough encounter. Unfortunately they were too well organised for us on the day, winning convincingly 20 – nil. However, it was not from lack of effort on our part. Every game has its little victories and there was much celebration as our pack continued to drive Morpeth off the ball on their put in at scrum time.

Definitely a lot to pleased about and build on.

Ryton combining with Hartlepool Rovers were our visitors from County Durham and proved to be a very strong and capable side, great to see them attend.

U18's - had a great opportunity to pull together both Northumberland and Durham players from a variety of clubs and form 2 teams for a full match. This proved to be highly entertaining with some great rugby on show.

Thank you to everyone for attending from all at Alnwick RFC. Girls rugby in Northumberland is in great shape with rapidly growing numbers increasing seemingly on a daily basis. A lot of local work is going in with schools from club coaches and RFU CRC's to build participation numbers even further. Both schools and club girls rugby has more than doubled in the past 12 months!

Alan Gardiner – Girls Coach.