Flashback: When Llanberis girl Sioned was part of a major Welsh rugby success

Sioned Phillips (left) with Wales manager Jenny Davies

Three years ago this week marked a special achievement for colleges rugby in Wales – and the north played a big part.

Welsh domination of the AoC Sport British Colleges Championships Girls Rugby 7’s continued as they secured the gold medal for a record ninth consecutive year in Nottingham.

The AoC Sport British Colleges Championships saw more than 1600 students across 13 different sports including football, squash, volleyball, basketball and cricket take part.

The Wales girls team were managed by Coleg Menai’s Jenny Davies, an ex-Welsh international prop forward with 74 caps.

And one member of the winning Welsh squad was Coleg Menai’s Sioned Phillips, who hails from Llanberis.

Sioned, who was studying a Level 3 Sport qualification, said: “What an experience! To be selected in the first place for the squad was unbelievable but to actually go and win the competition was something else.”

Fly-half Sioned, who scored one of the tries that defeated the East region, was a member of the Caernarfon and RGC youth teams at the time.

Sioned (back row – third from right) lines up with the successful Welsh Colleges side

She has since reverted to playing regular football, being the current player-manager of Llanberis, who play in Division Two of the North Wales Women’s League.

The 21-year-old previously played for Bethel.

When asked about her rugby success with Wales three years ago, she added: “It is something that I will never forget, one of the reasons I decided to go to college to help further my sporting career and hopefully this can be a springboard for more personal success.”

Sioned was part of the successful Academi Menai programme run by Coleg Menai, which gives learners from across all college courses an opportunity to participate in sport alongside their vocational course with weekly fixtures in Wales and the North West of England.