Rugby: Lancaster Lionesses finish third after hard fought win over Ryton

Thanks to their well fought victory over then-league leaders Ryton on Sunday, Lancaster Lionesses have finished third place in the NC 1st Division (North).

Lancaster Lionesses were established in 2023 to grow women’s rugby in the Lancaster area.

They are closely linked with Lancaster University’s Rugby XV, and take players from both the university and the community.

They recently received a £10,000 grant from Royal London, which they have planned to invest in growing a girls’ rugby programme and increasing engagement across Lancaster.

On Sunday, the Lionesses faced Ryton, who have been leading the league from the very first match.

In their first face-off with Ryton, the Lionesses lost 50–12.

Sunday’s match showed an incredible comeback of 36-31 from the Lionesses, which even managed to stop Ryton from winning the overall league.

Ryton had the upper hand from the start of the match, ensuring Lancaster were playing in a defensive position for most of the half.

Lancaster’s defensive efforts in the 22 were phenomenal, with relentless pressure from the Lionesses ensuring it took time, and effort, for Ryton to manage to break through, impeding their progress.

Despite their continuous defensive efforts, Lancaster also scored a few tries up the wing, thanks to the impressive speed of the Lioness backs.

The second half of the game is where the Lionesses really roared. Lancaster’s ball carrying was strong and relentless, with metres made with every player.

Jemima Spiller’s kicks ensured the ball never stayed in the 22 for long, and some incredible catches from fullback Eudora Aladesoun kept Lancaster in a strong attacking position.

Ryton had brought down a large crowd from their home in the North-East, who were fiercely supporting their team, as a win for them meant promotion.

The atmosphere was tense towards the end as Ryton closed the gap, needing only one more converted try to secure a victory.

Lancaster stayed strong, with a gapless defensive line and countless precise and tackles which, ultimately, gave Lancaster the win.

The Lionesses’ try scorers were Chiara Ravetto (x2), Eudora Aladesoun, Jemima Spiller (x2), and Gracie Tibbitts who converted three tries.

This marks the end of an incredible season for Lancaster Lionesses, who finished with seven wins, two losses and two draws.

They scored a total of 250 points, and conceded 277.

Eudora Aladesoun topped the leaderboard with 17 tries scored, closely followed by Chiara Ravetto.

We spoke with Kayla, the club’s chairperson, to hear her thoughts on the season!

What a win today! How do you think this win reflects the season you’ve had?

This season, our back line has really grown in terms of utilising space and just understanding each other a bit more! We really try to be up front in our tackles, and really in their face, which I think we did today! We’ve really started to see the identity of the Lionesses as a team come out — each week we are starting to see more people come to matches, and so it’s great to see so many Uni players and members of our community coming to support us today.

What were the highlights of this season for you?

The biggest highlight has to be coming third this season! After being promoted the previous two seasons, we really feel like we now belong in this league — it was definitely always our vision so I’m proud we’ve made it happen!

Why do you think you’ve been so successful this season?

I just think everyone have bought into what we are about! We lost our first match (interestingly, to the very team we beat today), but as a club we have just grown in trust with each other. Having a connection with the Uni team has also been really nice! We’re getting to the point where community players are staying to play, and graduates of the Uni are staying in Lancaster and playing for us. We graduated and then set up this club, so we hope other graduates will also stay in the area and continue playing!

What’s next for the Lancaster Lionesses?

Next year, we’re hoping to go for promotion! I guess we’ll see! It’s going to be another absolute battle. The teams we came up against this year fought hard, and we’re excited to put in that effort again.

We’ve also put in an application for a second team next year! Towards the end of this year, there’s been so much competition for spaces — so many people want to join women’s rugby and get game playing experience. We really want to support that!

We also received a £10,000 grant which we are investing into developing girls’ rugby. We’ve started communicating with schools in the area so we’re going to go in and promote girls’ rugby to them and then hopefully start some holiday camps!