Lacey Owen is held aloft by team-mates after York’s Grand Ultimate win over Leeds
Lacey Owen was 11 when she first picked up a rugby ball. Now aged 23, she is a Girls’s Tremendous League champion, an England worldwide, and one of many first feminine rugby league gamers within the nation to signal an expert contract.
The York Valkyrie participant’s rise to the highest has not been with out its challenges although. Rising up in Castleford, she needed to get her oval-ball repair exterior of a handful of league matches for her college enjoying membership rugby union as a result of an absence of choices on the time from neighborhood golf equipment within the space.
Owen turned her hand to different sports activities similar to netball and soccer as properly, however like many within the West Yorkshire city it was rugby league which was her fervent ardour, and she or he has quickly realised her ambitions since becoming a member of Castleford Tigers within the Girls’s Tremendous League as a 16-year-old.
“The first time I picked a rugby ball up – maybe it was the adrenaline I got or the fact it was all right to tackle somebody and run at people,” Owen informed Sky Sports activities.
“It’s a bit weird, but I felt like it was a sport I didn’t have to try to be good at, it just came naturally. I’m a very sporty person anyway so usually if I tried something I was good at it, but as soon as I picked a rugby ball up, I knew that was what I wanted to do.
“Since choosing a ball up from being in yr seven, I’ve by no means regarded again. I’ve tried each different sport you would think about, but it surely would not fairly suffice for me in the way in which rugby does.”
Although utilised as a fly-half or outside centre in rugby union, Owen has found her niche as a second row in league and is now aiming to develop those ball-handling and organisational skills utilised in her roles in the 15-a-side code after harnessing her ability to pick a good line.
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Owen scored the third try for York Valkyrie in the Betfred Women’s Super League Grand Final against Leeds Rhinos.
After taking a six-month break from the sport for personal reasons at the end of 2021, Owen followed her former Castleford head coach Lindsay Anfield to York in May last year and has quickly become a mainstay of the Valkyrie pack.
Her form as York secured a first Grand Final triumph last month, beating reigning champions Leeds Rhinos 16-6 at the LNER Community Stadium with Owen among the try-scorers, was rewarded with her earning a first England cap in the end-of-year Test against Wales.
Her international debut off the interchange bench at Headingley saw Owen score a try with one of her first touches in the 60-0 win for the hosts, but perhaps the biggest moment for her this year came when she was one of 20 Valkyrie players to be offered a two-year professional contract.
“It is unreal girls in rugby league have gotten skilled contracts and I am one of many few girls within the nation who have gotten one,” Owen mentioned.
I’m a very sporty person anyway so usually if I tried something I was good at it, but as soon as I picked a rugby ball up, I knew that was what I wanted to do.
Lacey Owen
“It is a particular factor, too. I am not going to take it with no consideration subsequent season and it reveals how far rugby league has come as an entire, not simply the ladies’s sport, and reveals youthful ladies as properly that is one thing you may obtain and hopefully in a few years it’s going to increase.
“I was blown away when I got asked to sign a contract with York because it is a step forward and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve always wanted it to be more than a hobby.”
Though now a contracted skilled participant, Owen will nonetheless be combining her rugby commitments together with her day-job at her outdated secondary college Castleford Academy, which implies persevering with the lengthy days of heading to work a 7.30am and never getting again house till 9pm after coaching with York.
Not that she is complaining concerning the sacrifices she has to make although, and Owen is enthused by the expansion of the ladies’s sport in her house space which was underlined by 4 different faculties bringing ladies groups to Castleford Academy earlier this week for a Wakefield district competitors.
Owen made a try-scoring debut for England within the end-of-season win over Wales
Owen has grow to be in demand for shirt shows and end-of-season awards nights for ladies groups too, and is humbled that she is being seen as an inspirational determine for the subsequent era.
“It’s really nice because I’m a role-model for all these young girls [at school] and I coach three rugby teams, so it’s really nice to see them progressing,” Owen mentioned.
“They asked me lots of questions about it and say ‘Oh, Miss, do you think we’ll be able to do that as our job?’. It’s really nice to hopefully think women will either be able to do it part-time or full-time as a job.
“If we will obtain that working full-time, think about what we might obtain if we had full-time contracts within the sport.”
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York Valkyrie were crowned Women’s Super League champions for the first time with a 16-6 Grand Final victory over Leeds Rhinos
The achievements of York’s women in recent seasons have seen them become the city’s leading rugby league lights ahead of the men’s team, the Knights, in the Championship, and Owen is delighted Andrew Henderson’s squad have been fully supportive of their efforts as well.
The Women’s Challenge Cup has so far eluded the Valkyrie though and the aim for the 2024 season is to add that prize to the collection, along with retaining the League Leaders’ Shield and repeating their Grand Final success.
“We have achieved incredible this yr as a membership and one thing we have centered on is reaching the head on the proper time,” Owen said. “That is one thing we did very well, however now it is about us being constant all through subsequent yr.
“I think the treble is on the cards for us next year and we’ve got some great players to hopefully execute that. Obviously, we all know Super League rugby and finals rugby is very different.
“It is when strain is utilized how we execute subsequent yr, however I’ve obtained us pinned for the treble – I hope so, anyway.”
Watch each match of the 2024 Tremendous League season, together with Magic Weekend, the play-offs, and males’s, girls’s, and wheelchair Grand Finals, stay on Sky Sports activities. Additionally stream with NOW.
