Club profile - Yorkshire Thorns

In this season review James Warrener was joined by Peter Strachan from Leeds-based Yorkshire Thorns.

His first question to Peter was how would he rate their season and give it a mark out of 10.

PS - "I am happy to give us eight out of 10 based on success at regional level where more clubs have been coming into the sport alongside national. We won the Regional Development Series and also played in the Mixed National Touch Series, finishing sixth in Division 3 and making some semi-finals.

"It's been good to have a core group of players whilst developing newcomers. There is quite a turnover of players so it's important to try and get them to stick by playing in that regional tournament.

"Leeds and the Yorkshire area has loads of potential players so it's really important to try and tap into that heritage in rugby. There are opportunities with Leeds University where we've played friendlies and shared players, along with our partnership with Leeds Rhinos."

James asked Peter to give me an example of a game where they could probably encapsulate their whole season.

PS - "I couldn't pick just one. But there were some really close defeats in the two semi-finals of the NTS. We learned a lot. The first time we went to Burton with four boys and seven girls. One boy got injured in the first match. That was a real test of character."

James and Peter went on to talk about what style of Touch they play.

PS - "We have some good attacking players, including Neil who plays for England 35s. He is quick off the mark and pacy. We also have our captain Tommy. They can both run to the line and then bring in some width later in the touch count."

They talked about calling out a player who deserves some recognition at the Thorns.

PS - "I want to mention Nicola Kelly. She plays most tournaments and trains regularly. She is a real credit to the club.

"I also want to mention Cam and Orla who played for Yorkshire all summer before moving to Dubai. Thanks and good luck to them."

We finished up by talking about what 2024 looked like for the Thorns.

PS - "There are a few players who look like they're going to be in World Cup training squads, which is really important . We also want to push more players into the Northeast team, and that's across all age groups.

"But the most important thing is to keep the game going in Leeds, keep a core squad of Thorns players to play in both regional and national series and to then look at the wider area."