A few weeks ago, I posted here asking if anyone had some tips on where to get a knock-off kit for a girls school RL side I coach in SE London. Many kind people helped out with advice, and I was impressed as ever by the helpfulness and warmth of the RL community. RLFans admins, however, went beyond the call of duty and actually stumped up some real cash. This, combined with some cash we'd managed to raise ourselves allowed us to purchase a rather splendid bespoke kit, complete with school badge and name.

I should also thank STAG Sports here, who couldn't do enough for us, both in terms of quality and price, and got us a kit, in female cut and sizes, from initial design to delivery within 2 weeks. The result is that today our girls played in the London and South regional finals of the Carnegie Champions Cup at Grasshoppers RFC in Twickenham, resplendent in what one development officer was overheard to call "the best-looking schools rugby league kit in the country".

Maybe the extra pride in their appearance spurred them on, but the girls went on to win the tournament and be crowned London and South champions, and in two weeks will be represent the region in the national finals, which I think are taking place at Leigh Sports Village.

The girls are absolutely chuffed (as are their coaches), and a whole school in Bromley is currently following rugby league with astonishing levels of interest. So I wanted to publicly thank the RLFans admin for their generous contribution to turning a bunch of south london girls into rugby league nuts.

PS - when I finally get all the blessed picture consent forms back from the parents, I'll send you a picture. At this rate, you might even get your money's worth !

What a great post, and well done. It's you who we ought to thank for being one of the small army of grass roots developers of the game. Well done again!

What a good story. Well done to all involved.

I second that, all the marketeers in the world can't promote the sport as well as those who are prepared to actually muck in and work hard. Also its wonderful when that is rewarded with the generous donation from the RLFANS admin, also even better when you win the tournament.

Congrats to all.

grass roots is where it starts.

Nice one good to see the RLFans community working together

Good stuff guys, i remember the thread.

Pah, I expected this to be another vile anti-establishment post. I was looking forward to that...

Oh well, well done with the development work anyway.

Kudos to those concerned.

Excellent post, and excellent work from our favourite website. Brilliant stuff guys.

Great stuff and congratulations to all involved for winning the tournament..............ps any big units available to help out the Quins front row ?

Great story and great news.

Congrats to all concerned.

Great story and well done to the admin team.

Well done also on winning the competition.

can we have a pic of the kit?

Congratulations to all concerned. A great story.

Great story Roy. Nearly brought a tear to my manly eyes.

Where's your predictions for this week? Or have you given up..
Its a nice tale but a tear to your eye?? man up

I said nearly



Predictions will be up tomorrow. Been out and about this week so not had the time and I'm having a night of me time.

Well done to all involved, and good luck with the future.

For those interested, the national festival for Y9 and Y7 girls was played today at Hopwood Hall, Rochdale.

Our London girls paid to travel up yesterday and we stayed in the rather splendid Leigh sports village Park Inn (there were some truly bemused customers there this morning when seventeen 14 year-old girls in rugby league kit turned up for breakfast). Then we travelled to the festival this morning after playing "sidestep the dog " on a patch of grass roundthe back of the stadium.

When we got there we saw that the two development area teams (us and Midlands champs, Coventry), had been allocated to different groups, presumably as the easybeats, along with three other teams in each group from Cumbria, Lancs and Yorks. We also discovered that as two teams had apparently dropped out (why would anyone drop out of a finals comp ?), we were only going to get three 14-minute games unless we finished in the top two of our group and got a semi. At that point, as the heavens opened, I was beginning to question whether it had been worth the 10 hour round-trip.

I'll save the match reports for the school newspaper, but suffice to say here that my Bromley girls, confusing their northern foes by delivering "parsses" and playing on the "grarss", first beat the Cumbrian representatives, West Lakes High School 2 tries to 1 (I think), and then in a titanic battle defeated Lancashire champions, the mighty St John Fisher of Wigan, by (I think again) 3 tries to 2, defending their own line resolutely for much of the last nerve-wracking few minutes. As a St Helens lad, watching my team beat the pies was about as satisfying as it gets.

That win secured us a semi-final place, which was a good job, as we rather forgot how to play in our third group match against a strong Featherstone team. Our ultimate second place finish in our group therefore won us a semi against reigning champions Castleford High. Unfortunately, that was one step too far for the London girls, and their previous efforts told (plus growing tiredness from what I later discovered had been early-hours shenanigans in the hotel - the muppets), and Castleford showed why it'll take a fair bit to wrest that trophy from them.

It was a great day and a great experience, and although my lasses were understandably upset to be beaten, because they're all competitors, we had a wonderful time and the girls' resolve to be back challenging next year is stronger than ever (they've all promised me that next time they'll actually try to sleep the night before). I'm a very tired, but very proud, coach tonight.

And in my humble opinion, we definitely had the best kit in the tournament ! Thanks again RLFans.

Hope you enjoyed the visit to the RL mecca that is the LSV

I don't mind putting my yacht purchase back a year for a cause such as this.

Good luck, Roy.

good to hear a league success down here in london. we need to keep spreading the greatest game!

well dome

Very well done to all concerned