Hills Sports High School has claimed its first rugby league National School Girls Cup title after a tense 22-10 win over Queensland champions, Keebra Park High School.

While dominant in the intra-state competition with three out of four crowns since its inception in 2023, Australian honours had eluded them.

Until now.

Playing on Queensland turf at the home of the NRL’s Dolphins, the Hills Girls got off to the best possible start as they raced to a 14-0 lead.

Havana Cook scored a try off a chip kick and silky footwork by halfback Liannah Amete – who has dominated the competition despite only being in Year 10 – resulted in another.

But thoughts of a runaway win evaporated like the huge first half breeze behind their backs, as Keebra Park scored consecutive second period tries to drag the margin back to 14-10.

Two tries in the dying minutes sealed the result however, as Hills became the first NSW school to win the girls’ national crown.

“It’s very special and very surreal,” said Liannah, adjudged the best player in the tournament.

“Everyone is family (at Hills Sports) and it means so much”.

For Endeavour Sports High School, it wasn’t quite to be in the National Schoolboys Cup final against Wavell State High School.

The Shire team came out of the blocks strongly and took a 6-0 lead after a converted try to Jamie Curran.

But the home side struck back to be only 6-4 down at the break, leaving Endeavour with plenty of work to do running into the teeth of the wind.

Two tries and a couple of penalty goals virtually put the game beyond doubt for Wavell High School, though Endeavour remained committed to the end as they came up with a late four-pointer of their own as the match finished 20-12.

Sports High School President and Endeavour Sports High School Principal James Kozlowski said the performances continued to show the growing status of sports high schools in NSW

“Both games were played to a very high standard and we definitely saw some future stars of the NRL and NRLW playing from both our teams,” he said.

“Having two teams here in the national finals and all four teams making the state finals was pretty impressive. It really demonstrates the strength of the sports high schools – and we believe the best is yet to come.”