U15s SQUAD ANNOUNCED It was one of the hardest selections ever due to the volume of top quality players participating, but here are the 31 successful girls set to put on the Black & Gold across May. Congratulations! To anyone who came just short of selection: you all did yourselves and your clubs proud, and please continue to come and join us at the open training sessions to continue your rugby journey alongside the squad.
Cornwall Women announce squad for Gill Burns Cup
Cornwall Women coaching staff have announced their enlarged squad for this season’s Gill Burns Cup.
It’s the first time in three years due to covid that the Cornish Women’s Senior side have been able to have a competitive representative fixture.
Cornwall will kick-off their campaign on Sunday 8th May against Dorset & Wilts Women at Launceston’s Polson Bridge Ground kick-off 2pm.
They travel to Grasshoppers RFC in Isleworth to play Middlesex Women the following Sunday before completing their pool games at home to Somerset Women on Sunday 22nd May at Hayle RFC kick-off 1 pm.
Entry to the two home games is free and refreshments will be available on the day.
XGirl Cup: Knife-edge Knock-outs Await
Report by Ross Tucknott
Newquay & Perranporth U15s will be nervously looking over their shoulders going into the XGirl Cup knock-out finale in April, after momentum proved to be firmly with the chasing pack at Truro RFC on Sunday as the league stages reached completion.
Having led the table all season, the gap between themselves and their rivals all but disappeared as Bude won all four of their matches, with the leaders failing to gain a losing bonus point against both Bude and Camborne, who themselves are finishing the season in fine form.
Also peaking at the right time are St Austell, who have found a strong understanding on the pitch with recent partners Penzance and who put five tries past Bude before defeating Camborne themselves. Truro caused problems for both Bude and St Austell/Penzance, demonstrating their increasing competitiveness, whilst it was a first appearance at the XGirl Cup for Wadebridge’s newly set up girls section who joined in with Launceston to book their involvement in the knock-out finals at the end of the season.
Seedings for the knock-out stage are based on the league table positions, so nothing is decided yet and on current form every team will fancy their chances of causing some upsets on the final day!
Meanwhile on the bottom pitches the standard of play in the U13s was skyrocketing, with the highest quality of team play seen at this level for years providing some exceptional matches. Whereas attacking play was the dominating force at the opening stage, now teams were showing robust defences and good continuity going through the phases with one team conceding only 7 tries across their 4 games.
Redruth Water and Camborne/Penzance drew in the opening fixture of the day, and these pair of teams then remained undefeated throughout. Both overcame an equally impressive Redruth Fire, whose 7-0 win over Bude was one of the most best matches of the event, given that Bude put 16 tries past their other opponents.
Liskeard were a single try versus Launceston from finishing unbeaten themselves; Launceston were the only team to score 4 tries past Camborne; Truro restricted everyone but the free-scoring Bude to just 2 tries; and the new Wadebridge U13s joined the Perranporth girls and held Liskeard to a very creditable draw as well as pushing Camborne all the way as well.
Thanks to Truro RFC for being such excellent hosts, and to all the volunteers both on and off the pitch.
Results
U15s
Camborne 22 – 14 Newquay&Perranporth
Bude 50 – 33 St Austell/Penzance
Launceston/Wadebridge 10 – 29 Truro
Camborne 14 – 19 St Austell/Penzance
Newquay&Perranporth 54 – 0 Launceston/Wadebridge
Bude 33 – 21 Truro
Camborne 42 – 7 Launceston/Wadebridge
Newquay&Perranporth 14 – 26 Bude
St Austell/Penzance 61 – 24 Truro
Camborne 10 – 12 Bude
Newquay&Perranporth 35 – 10 Truro
St Austell/Penzance 47 – 15 Launceston/Wadebridge
U13s
Redruth Fire 34 – 0 Perranporth/Wadebridge
Redruth Water 14 – 14 Camborne/Penzance
Truro/St Austell 12 – 12 Launceston
Bude 28 – 42 Liskeard
Redruth Fire 22 – 26 Redruth Water
Camborne/Penzance 26 – 17 Perranporth/Wadebridge
Bude 40 – 26 Truro/St Austell
Launceston 40 – 33 Liskeard
Redruth Fire 7 – 0 Bude
Camborne/Penzance 26 – 20 Launceston
Redruth Water 12 – 7 Truro/St Austell
Perranporth/Wadebridge 7 – 7 Liskeard
Redruth Fire 10 – 28 Camborne/Penzance
Redruth Water 33 – 0 Launceston
Bude 42 – 0 Perranporth/Wadebridge
Truro/St Austell 12 – 14 Liskeard
Cornwall Girls U18s Squad Announcement
Storms, traffic jams, floodlight failures, locked-up venues. It’s certainly been a memorable couple of trial sessions, but at the end of it all the following 30 girls have been selected to represent Cornwall this season! Well done to all those who have made the cut: emails will be following regarding what comes next. Congratulations!
Those players who trialled but fell just short of making the squad, we don’t want your involvement to end yet though. In recent years we’ve kept the door open to training sessions for players to continue to train with the squad and improve their skills and game understanding and this year is no different: indeed, as part of a formal Cornwall Development Squad we invite all trialists to all county training sessions, including this Friday’s session at Truro College. The Cornwall coaching team can’t wait to start working with all of you.
A massive thanks to everyone involved in running the trials too: none of this would happen without all your continued support and effort.
Cornwall Women’s Rugby Development Days – New 2nd Date
Details have been released of the upcoming Development Days at Launceston RC on Friday 4th & 18th February.
Please join the Facebook page for further details.
XGirl Cup: The Insurmountable Fortress Camborne
XGirl Cup report by Ross Tucknott
At the third round of the XGirl Cup, draft headlines such as “New Highest Attendance For Cornish Girls Rugby” or “Redruth Join The Girls Rugby Party” found themselves crumpled and thrown in the metaphorical waste paper bin. The home team had simply decided to write a whole new script as the Camborne U15s leapt up the table after going undefeated across the afternoon’s fixtures.
Not that those other headlines didn’t happen. Almost 200 girls turned up to play XRugby at the Rec, with the U13s hitting another first by being the first age group fielding 8 separate teams in the competition. Redruth joined in with the Cornish girls rugby programme for the first time too, having incubated a brand new and proficient U13s squad over the first half of the season and rightly felt their players were ready to take the step into competitive games. Plus the high attendance isn’t likely to stand for long either, with Wadebridge set to join in in the very near future too.
However, the main story of the day was definitely the performance of the Camborne U15s on home turf, ripping up the form book with an impressive brand of bruising defence and strong breakdown pressure.
Their opening 14-7 win against table-toppers Newquay & Perranporth – the first loss for the north coasters in any format all season – was not as close as the scoreline would suggest, with the losing bonus point only conceded in the last play of the game. Three more tries were enough to see off a creditable effort from Truro before inflicting an uncharacteristic 28-0 loss upon Launceston/St Austell/Penzance. The final match of their afternoon saw the home side fight their way to an impressive 17-5 win against second place Bude, hurtling Camborne up 3 places in the league table.
Meanwhile on the U13s pitches, Camborne were also the only side to match Redruth’s fine debut performances. Redruth’s fine recruitment efforts gave them the numbers to split into two squads, and all three of the teams from Cornish rugby’s heartland won three out of their four matches. Bude & Camborne were the only teams to spoil the debuts, with Camborne’s own clean sweep denied in turn by Perranporth. Liskeard finished the strongest, improving every round and putting a whopping seven tries past Redruth but yet still falling just short!
Finally, with injuries and Covid affecting key personnel for all the U18s squads, and with them all having missed out on 15-a-side rugby for longer than the younger age groups, the XRugby 10s programme was put on hold in favour of a standard rugby fixture, with Truro overcoming their combined opponents 42-24.
County Trials:
Updated county nomination and permission forms for the forthcoming trails are available on the CRFU website for the U18s trials (starting Feb 6th) and the U15s trials too (starting Feb 20th). Coaches and team managers have already received and circulated them, but anyone wishing to trial can also grab a copy from here too!
Full Results
U18s
Truro 42-24 Launceston & Belerions
U15s
Newquay & Perranporth 17 – 12 Bude
St Austell/Launceston/Penzance 31 – 21 Truro
Camborne 14 – 7 Newquay & Perranporth
Bude 19 – 7 St Austell/Launceston/Penzance
Truro 7 – 19 Camborne
Newquay & Perranporth 28 – 14 St Austell/Launceston/Penzance
Truro 7 – 26 Bude
Camborne 28 – 0 St Austell/Launceston/Penzance
Newquay & Perranporth 56 – 28 Truro
Bude 5 – 17 Camborne
U13s
Perranporth 28 – 41 Bude
Redruth A 24 – 47 Camborne
Truro/St Austell 12 – 24 Redruth B
Liskeard 15 – 53 Launceston
Perranporth 52 – 35 Camborne
Redruth A 27 – 12 Bude
Liskeard 10 – 36 Redruth B
Truro/St Austell 19 – 50 Launceston
Perranporth 21 – 28 Redruth A
Bude 21 – 38 Camborne
Truro/St Austell 33 – 22 Liskeard
Redruth B 29 – 7 Launceston
Perranporth 43 – 7 Truro/St Austell
Bude 31 – 10 Redruth B
Redruth A 54 – 37 Liskeard
Camborne 52 – 14 Launceston
Gill Burns Cup Division 3 Fixtures 2022
Gill Burns Cup Division 3 Fixtures 2022
Cornwall Women’s fixtures for this season’s Gill Burns Cup have been released, we have two home games and a trip to Middlesex.
Sunday May 8th, CORNWALL WOMEN 30 – 15 DORSET & WILTS WOMEN @ Launceston RC
Sunday May 15th, MIDDLESEX WOMEN 5 – 10 CORNWALL WOMEN @ Grasshoppers RFC
Sunday May 22nd, CORNWALL WOMEN 28 – 27 SOMERSET WOMEN @ Hayle RFC
FINAL
Saturday June 4th CORNWALL WOMEN 36 – 17 NOTTS, LINCS, DERBY WOMEN @ Richmond Athletic Ground
Josie Plant selected for England Women’s Under 18 squad
Congratulations to Josie Plant who has been selected for this season’s England Women Under 18 squad.
Josie, who hails from Perranporth where she began her rugby journey, is currently with Exeter Chiefs having also been with Camborne and Penryn during her rugby development.
We wish her every success for the forthcoming International program.
Chloe Dawe – RIP
It is with great sadness that we learned this weekend of the passing of popular young player Chloe Dawe, following a short illness with cancer at the age of just 23.
Chloe began playing rugby at the age of 6 with Launceston minis progressing through the age groups, also representing Cornwall at age group level, before playing for the senior Cornwall Ladies team.
CRFU President John Sumnall, and all involved with Cornwall RFU, wish to express their sincerest and heartfelt condolences to Chloe’s family, friends and teammates, and that our thoughts and prayers are very much with them at this sad time.
XGirl Cup: Newquay/Perranporth Storm to Glory
Stage 2 @ Launceston RFC, Report by Ross Tucknott
The sun was out and the winds of Storm Arwen had petered out, but a different force of nature descended from the north Cornish coast to wreak more havoc on Sunday’s second stage of the CRFU’s XRugby competition for girls, as Newquay and Perranporth officially combined in both the U15s and U13s to continue their unbeaten runs in the competition.
Newquay & Perranporth U15s – alongside a pair of talented St Austell players – secured maximum points on the day, with only Truro & Liskeard in the last game coming away with anything to show for their own efforts. They weren’t the only force from the north coast to make waves either: Bude continued their own impressive start to the competition by splitting into two squads and each only losing to the table-toppers. Truro & Liskeard took league points from every game they played, and their opening draw ensured that Launceston – also ably assisted by St Austell – secured their first points of the campaign, as well as from a hard fought bonus point against Bude B.
Not to be outdone by their older clubmates, the Newquay & Perranporth U13s also joined with a St Austell player and grabbed an impressive clean sweep. Launceston came closest to upsetting the visitors, losing by only a single point, as well as participating in a blistering 38-38 draw with Truro & Liskeard and only falling short of matching Camborne by a single try as well. Camborne, Bude and Truro & Liskeard all pocketed wins and but every team’s defence was noticeably improved from Stage 1, promising to create even more tight and exciting games as the season progresses.
Last but far from least, the Launceston U18s continued their own 100% record in the competition with emphatic wins over their opponents. With only a handful of Belerions players able to attend, those that made it joined up with Truro Bengals to inflict a handy defeat upon the Truro Siberians, but the Siberians in turn managed to restrict Launceston to a narrower scoreline than their clubmates.
So at the halfway stage of the league competition, the U18s and U15s tables now stand as follows:
Full Results:
U18s
Launceston 24 – 14 Truro Siberians
Truro Siberians 21 – 47 Truro Bengals & Belerions
Launceston 31 – 12 Truro Bengals & Belerions
U15s
Newquay/Perranporth & St Austell 34 – 12 Bude A
Launceston & St Austell 12 – 12 Truro & Liskeard
Bude B 21 – 54 Newquay/Perranporth & St Austell
Bude A 45 – 7 Launceston & St Austell
Truro & Liskeard 35 – 38 Bude B
Newquay/Perranporth & St Austell 68 – 7 Launceston & St Austell
Truro & Liskeard 24 – 63 Bude A
Bude B 43 – 31 Launceston & St Austell
Newquay/Perranporth & St Austell 55 – 38 Truro & Liskeard
Bude A P-P Bude B (scored as a draw)
U13s
Bude 24 – 42 Newquay/Perranporth & St Austell
Launceston 38 – 38 Liskeard
Camborne 10 – 31 Bude
Newquay/Perranporth & St Austell 22 – 21 Launceston
Liskeard & Truro 28 – 26 Camborne
Bude 54 – 24 Launceston
Liskeard & Truro 0 – 56 Newquay/Perranporth & St Austell
Camborne 42 – 35 Launceston
Bude 33 – 35 Liskeard & Truro
Newquay/Perranporth & St Austell 56 – 12 Camborne
