TWO West Cumbrian teenagers have been selected to represent Scotland\u2019s national rugby league team.<\/p>\n
Aaliyah Relph, 14, of Whitehaven, and Eden Holliday, 13, of Aspatria, who both play for Lowca Lionesses, were chosen to join the under 14s team for Scotland.<\/p>\n
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They will also be part of the Scotland International Rugby League player development programme, which aims to put the girls on a pathway to the 2030 Women\u2019s World Cup in Australia.<\/p>\n
Aaliyah\u2019s mum, Laura said: \u201cShe\u2019s in her second season with Lowca. If any of the girls had Scottish heritage, they had the opportunity of going up and training through the development programme. I\u2019m Scottish so that\u2019s how she managed to go into it.<\/p>\n
\u201cTraining sessions are all over the country and the county. She absolutely loves it. Rugby is her absolute passion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aaliyah Relph playing for Lowca Lionesses (Image: Submitted)<\/p>\n
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Laura said it all started about 18 months ago after Aaliyah had been playing football for five years. She was at the Lowca rugby pitch with her friends when one of the coaches noticed her and asked her to try out for the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s absolutely hooked,\u201d Laura said. \u201cHer passion for rugby is phenomenal. If she\u2019s not playing it, she\u2019s watching it.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s progressed her rugby so fast. To me, she\u2019s just outstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eden\u2019s mum, Kirsty said: \u201cShe\u2019s loving her rugby at the minute so she\u2019s chuffed. Her grandad, from her dad\u2019s side of the family, is Scottish.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s quite good at getting on with new people so she\u2019s enjoying that side of it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Eden, who attends Nelson Thomlinson School, joined Lowca this season but has played rugby league since she was six. She started with Aspatria Hornets and was the only girl on the team. When she turned 12, she could no longer play in a mixed squad, so had to find an all-girls team.<\/p>\n
Eden Holliday plays for Lowca Lionesses (Image: Submitted)<\/p>\n
She completed a season at Maryport and then went to Lowca, a team she \u2018absolutely loves\u2019 playing for. A talent for rugby runs in the family \u2013 Eden\u2019s brother, Ellis Holliday, played for the England Lions last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe supported him and the roles are reversed now. He\u2019s going to come and watch her,\u201d Kirsty said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019re a massive rugby-supporting family. My husband has played all his life. It\u2019s just very rugby orientated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aaliyah, a pupil at St Benedict\u2019s School, said: \u201cBeing selected for Scotland is a great opportunity. Playing Internationally was something I\u2019ve wanted to achieve since I started only 18 months ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith lots of hard work and determination I have managed to reach the international level of rugby league. Representing Scotland is a great honour. I’m grateful to share this opportunity with one of my current teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to thank my coaches and staff from Lowca – Scott, Vicky and Stewart – who have all helped me to get to where I am today. Without them, this wouldn\u2019t be possible. I\u2019d also like to thank my mam for all her help and support traveling up and down the country and up to various locations in Scotland for training and matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying for Scotland is my biggest achievement and hopefully I will achieve my dream of playing in the 2030 Women’s World Cup in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TWO West Cumbrian teenagers have been selected to represent Scotland\u2019s national rugby league team. Aaliyah Relph, 14, of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[79959,748,79957,4884,79956,6531,79960,712,79958,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-197089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-aaliyah","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eden-holliday","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-lowca-lionesses","13":"tag-rugby-league","14":"tag-rugby-pitch","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-scotland-international-rugby-league","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114709958743437521","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}