Players, Steph Gray and Ellie Costello, and Head Coach, Mike Grady spoke to us post-match after our girls’ crucial victory over Castleford Tigers.
It makes it back-to-back wins in the Women’s Championship, moving the Reds up to fifth in the table and within striking distance of the top four.
The ultimate aim for Mike Grady and his team this season is to earn promotion to the Betfred Women’s Super League, but first, they have to break into that quartet to earn a spot in the playoffs.
One player who has experience in the top division is star centre, Steph Gray, who continued her brilliant individual campaign by bagging a brace against the Tigers.
On the game and her role in the team, she told us: “I think we’ve come along nicely with shape and stuff. It was wet, so we had to tighten up in terms of passing and stuff, but I think we grew into the game nicely.”
“I’ll just play wherever the team needs me, to be honest,” when referencing her change from back-row to centre, “I think both are different; I’ve played centre most of my career, so I moved to back-row for a bit of a change, and then today I did a bit of prop’ing – so I’ll play wherever the team needs!”
Another top performer on Sunday was Ellie Costello, who was chosen as Player of the Match for her influential scrum-half display.
It’s clear to see she is growing into the team game-by-game, and has worked closely with attacking coach, Dave Hewitt, to refine her game.
On how the team’s attack shape is coming together, she said: “I just think everybody enjoys the roles now and the processes, and it’s obviously coming together in the games.”
“They’re brilliant, they just run the right lines. I always know where Anna’s (Dennis) going to be, I don’t know what she’s going to do, but I back her and know she’s going to get over the line herself.”
Seeing it click will be pleasing Head Coach, Mike Grady, who constantly challenges his team to express themselves and tap into the strike players all over the park.
“It does please me,” he said when giving his reaction to the game, “I’m going to touch on it- obviously, I’m disappointed in conceding the try. But attacking-wise we were fantastic, execution was good, conditions weren’t the best – so to score that many tries was a good result for us.”
“We earmark most games, but definitely these two after losing a few at the start of the league season. We needed to get a bit of form as we’re coming towards the back end, so these were important for us.”
Tap the video above to watch the trio’s full match reaction…
