Five years since the untimely passing of Rosie Stewart, Cooke Women’s Rugby team, whom she had helped to found, brought the Memorial Cup home. The cup was established in honour of Rosie’s passion and dedication for her club.

On Sunday 6th April Cooke Ladies and City of Derry clashed heads for a Cup that meant a tremendous amount to both teams. As Rosie was originally from Londonderry, the City of Derry Ladies felt a strong connection with the Cup. It was also an opportunity for them to take on Ulster’s leading club.

Despite her Derry connections, Rosie Stewart was a founding member of Cooke Women’s Rugby Club, and it was here that she played out her rugby career. In spite of the saying “home is where the heart is”, when in came to rugby, Cooke held Rosie’s heart, thus the opportunity to bring the trophy home in Rosie’s honour was forefront in the Cooke ladies’ minds when entering the final.

Cooke were composed and confident from the outset, having won all of their previous matches in the Cup. Centre, Heather Tomlinson conducted the first twenty minutes of the game; picking weaknesses in the Derry line up. She allowed both backs and forwards through, as well as taking them on herself, with her exceptionally deceiving dummy pass and effective side stepping. The first of Cooke’s tries was touched down by Outside Centre and Skipper, Suzanne Fleming who played alongside Rosie for Cooke, Ulster and Ireland. Using her knowledge, velocity and nimbleness of feet; Suzie was able to dance around the Derry defence from just within Derry’s own half, before placing the ball over the line. 

Amy Davis then used her outstanding pace to place the ball right underneath the posts. Despite solid counterattacking from the Derry pack, the Cooke forwards kept the pressure up for the remainder of the first half, hitting up the field with relentless aggression and powerful runs from tight head Emma Lowe and fellow front row, Lauren Day, resulting in a further try for the Belfast team from speedy winger Laura Stewart.

City of Derry must be commended for their positive show in the second half and for continuing despite the mounting pressure from the Cooke team.  City of Derry’s Lock and Captain, Glenda Fleming displayed some particularly sturdy play, along with a number of courageous runs from backs, Clodagh McClune, Mirranda Berner and Susan Kinney. Derry gained more possession in the second half, however they could not pacify Cooke’s campaign to dominate the match. Particularly impressive was Cooke Flanker, Rachael Boyd, who played passionately and with great fortitude throughout, turning over ball and making some solid runs, before Amy Davis crossed the line for Cooke’s fourth try of the game. Combined with two conversions from Lock, Lucy Fagan, Davis’ second try of the match brought the score to 26-nil; where it remained for the rest of the game.

In a fitting tribute to Rosie Stewart, her mother and god- daughter presented the cup to Cooke Captain, Suzanne Fleming. Suzanne accepted the cup and spoke emotionally about how proud she was of Cooke’s effort in bringing the cup home to Rosie’s own club. Fleming described Rosie as a dear team mate and friend, who had toiled tirelessly with huge commitment and charisma in the cause of establishing and developing women's rugby in Ulster. In her final words, Suzanne concluded her speech by saying: “In her absence I hope the Cup is a lasting reminder to us all of the ‘Spirit of Rugby’.”

                          Above: Amy Davis playing for Cooke in the Rosie Stewart Memorial Bowl