Leeds Tykes are planning a festival of womens rugby in partnership with the RFU, RFUW, and Leeds Met Carnegie on the day of the game between Leeds Tykes v Doncaster Knights on Saturday 21^st October, KO 2.30pm.  Prior to the big Kick Off, Headingley Carnegie Stadium, will play host to the first fixture in this years Northern Counties Cup between Yorkshire and Cheshire in the full senior womens competition.  Leeds Tykes supporters are welcome to attend the game early to make the most of this unique double header with the womens game set to kick off at 11.45am.

Not only will this big game kick off as a curtain raiser to Leeds Tykes v Doncaster Knights but the community team are set to host a girls & womens rugby festival at the Leeds Rugby Academy situated at Kirkstall.  In particular the session will focus on the 12 to 17 year old age groups and a separate session for those women aged 18+.  The session will be led by British Lion legend John Bentley who will be assisted by members of the Tykes community team, several Leeds Tykes players, and RFU coaching staff.  For the first hour the session will look at generic rugby coaching with the second part of the session looking at specific player position coaching.  The festival will commence at 9.30am promptly and finish by 11.30am to give participants time to get up to watch the ladies game at Headingley Carnegie Stadium.  Turnstiles will be open at the ground at 11.30am.

Commenting on the days events, Leeds Tykes Marketing Manager Nick Fletcher said, “Everyone will know about the recent fantastic achievement of the England womens team in reaching the rugby World Cup final.  The profile of womens rugby has never been higher with some great coaching programmes in place by the RFU and RFUW.  We would like to help support this where we can, and we hope that by staging such a festival that we can look to make this an annual event.  Our community programme is without doubt one of the best in the country and as part of our commitment to hep deliver coaching at grass roots level, we are keen to help promote and support the womens game wherever we can.  We are extremely excited by the format we have planned for womens rugby and we expect a lot of girls and womens teams to take part.’

The cost of the festival is £15 per participant which includes a match ticket to watch the womens game between Yorkshire v Cheshire and Leeds Tykes v Doncaster Knights.  For more information, or to book a girls or womens team in to the festival please call Helen Saunders on (0113) 203 3285 or e-mail helen.saunders@leedsrugby.com.