Betfred Women’s Super League Grand Final<\/p>\n
Wigan (6) 6<\/p>\n
Try: Atherton Goal: Rowe<\/p>\n
York (8) 8<\/p>\n
Try: Peach Goals: Williamson 2<\/p>\n
York Valkyrie became the first side to win the Women’s Super League three times after an incredible defensive effort thwarted Wigan Warriors at the Brick Community Stadium.<\/p>\n
Under siege for much of a scoreless second half, York stood firm to claim a surprise win over the favourites.<\/p>\n
Teenager Amelie Lenham, the player of the match, led the way with a series of crucial interventions as a first-half try from Sinead Peach, plus two goals from Ellie Williamson, proved just enough.<\/p>\n
Wigan – who had their only try-scorer Mia-Jayne Atherton and Eva Hunter sin-binned in the first half – were left stunned after an uncharacteristically error-strewn display.<\/p>\n
York head coach Leon Pryce felt Hunter should have been sent off for a forearm to the throat of Williamson as she carried the ball into contact but in the end it did not affect the result.<\/p>\n
The Valkyrie, the only team to have beaten Wigan this season, dug deep into their well of resolve to shade a gripping Grand Final.<\/p>\n
Without the influential Tara Jane Stanley through concussion, they were odds against but with Wigan unable to get into their free-flowing stride, York’s superb determination saw them over the line.<\/p>\n
They had a simple gameplan and played it to perfection.<\/p>\n
Peach gave them a ninth-minute lead, spinning through the Wigan defence close to the line after making the initial break as they dominated the opening exchanges.<\/p>\n
Atherton pulled Wigan level in the 18th minute after a fine break from Jenna Foubister. But she was then sin-binned for her part in a dangerous double tip tackle with Bethan Dainton on Jas Bell, and Williamson put over the penalty to restore York’s lead.<\/p>\n
Lenham went close to increasing it and Liv Wood was held up over the line just after the break but from then it was one-way traffic.<\/p>\n
But York, winners in 2023 and 2024, simply refused to yield.<\/p>\n
Lisa Parker, who played with a broken hand, made 47 tackles. Her fiance proposed to her on the touchline afterwards. She said yes. It was that sort of night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Betfred Women’s Super League Grand Final Wigan (6) 6 Try: Atherton Goal: Rowe York (8) 8 Try: Peach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-784764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}