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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Nigel Wiskar

Amy Hardcastle's mum and pal enjoy England star's sublime hat-trick... in Amy masks

Amy Hardcastle is sitting next to me. And she is sitting next to Amy Hardcastle.

They have a large England flag with Amy Hardcastle’s face on it and an official black England rucksack with the initials AH on it. Can you guess what that stands for?

The two ladies are wearing Amy masks - which is why we have the multiple Hardcastle moment.

“I got them from Amazon,” says Allison, Amy’s mum, mask perched on head. “I LOVE Amazon!”

It’s fair to say there’s a lot of love too for her pink-haired daughter today as she lines up against Brazil in the World Cup.

Allison is wearing a new England shirt with a number four on the back and the slogan DAUGHTER.

Her pal Amanda - Aunty Mandy as she is fondly known - shares her joy.

Amanda tells me Amy put two players in hospital the first two times she played the game for Siddal.

Allison then reassures me her daughter doesn’t want to hurt people - she’s an ambassador for Rugby League Cares after all - but is “so strong”.

Amy and Allison live in adjoining cottages in Brighouse and sometimes knock on the wall to communicate.

“Apart from having a door we are in the same house,” says Allison.

I tell her before kick off I wanted to put some money on Amy scoring a hat-trick today but the bookies are smart in a game like this and William Hill have no try-scorer market.

When Amy blasts through for her third try, I turn to her and mouth ‘told you’.

She is beside herself with happiness.

Every parent is proud in some way but one of the joys of being at a game in this tournament has been spotting the friends and relatives of players savouring their loved one’s moment on the world stage.

England are impressive and too good - as that 72-4 scoreline reflects.

Though they are not without first game teething issues.

At times they rely on the individual brilliance of Hardcastle, the clever darts of Courtney Winfield-Hill and that dazzling step of Tara-Jane Stanley.

One of the reasons they don’t always click is because of the stubbornness of the Amazonas pack.

They come from a country where previous nutjob president Jair Bolsonaro wanted to chop down and exploit the rainforest.

He doesn’t LOVE the Amazon - but nobody is chopping down that pack.

Where they are porous out wide, they are brutally brilliant in the middle. Their tackle numbers must be off the scale.

Prop Franciny Amaral is a revelation. She’s that nasty, round prop size - more union than league in truth - but has an engine that goes on and on for 63 minutes without rest - and then on again for the closing moments.

Amy breezes through for one of her three tries (Anna Gowthorpe/REX/Shutterstock)

Alongside her, second row Patricia Oliveira has no stop button. Time and again she takes the ball up or adds to the yellow and green tackling masses. She’s the hardest working player on the pitch.

Before the game the couple to the right of me in their Brazil shirts belted out their anthem. They then sang God Save The King.

After the game the Amazonas shimmy their way off the pitch to the intoxicating sound of the samba band. Can we have those drummers at every game?

And then en masse they dance to that beat, a line of sheer joy showing the best footwork in the whole tournament.

Later I give a double thumbs up to a player on the front seat of their team bus, she returns it with a smile that would light up Headingley.

She nudges the player next to her and soon four of her teammates are all waving back wildly.

Like Greece’s unparalleled journey to play rugby league and to even be in this country, it’s a moment that means more than winning or losing. It’s about being here, having an invite to the party.

Ask Amy Hardcastle’s mum... and Aunty Mandy in the Amy mask sitting next to her.

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