Canterbury Women – Unlucky End to Great Season
After an incredible season, winning 5-5 from in the round robin, the Canterbury girls finished top of the table on 23 points, and with their convincing 55-3 semi final win over Hawke’s Bay, they deservedly won the right to host the final. Beating Auckland 20-15 for the first time, in their round-robin encounter, the Canterbury Girls looked in good form to take the title this year, which was been won by Auckland 6 times, out of the competition’s 7 year history. Co-Coach Sarah Helmore, said their build-up to the final was “pretty relaxed” and they did everything they needed to, without too many nerves, although “things seemed to change after the kick-off”. Auckland, having been in Canterbury’s position so many times before, put the Canterbury girls under pressure right from the start, with a try 5 minutes into the match, to fullback Angela McGregor. Scoring again 10 minutes before half-time, with a try to winger Renee Wickliffe, Auckland pushed out to a 12-0 lead. But as they had done in the round robin match, Canterbury bounced back just before half time, with a try to wing Halie Hurring, to close the gap to12-5 going into the break. Canterbury were at full strength, with the exception of Co-Captain and flanker, Melissa Ruscoe, who was ruled out on the Tuesday prior to the game, after the Black Fern suffered a concussion in their final round-robin match against Wellington. Although Auckland had applied pressure for most of the first half, Sarah says they still felt they could come back, as they did - though leaving their run just a little too late. Auckland opened the scoring early in the second half, running in two tries, to Canterbury’s one penalty to Anika Tiplady, stretching their lead to 24-8. With tries to Amiria Rule and Kiri Mei in the last 5 minutes of the match, Canterbury again closed in on Auckland, this time trailing 24-20, giving them another glimmer of hope. Unfortunately time was not on their side, and Auckland prevailed. Sarah says the girls have had a very successful season - just unfortunately they didn’t play as well as they could have at the final hurdle. Sarah said they made “some bad decisions”, and didn’t use the elements to their advantage, such as utilizing the wind to kick for territory, and “playing catch-up footy is always hard”. But Sarah feels the girls have made a big step up this year, particularly going through unbeaten to the final. The girls are now enjoying a well deserved break – But will be looking forward to the announcement of the Black Ferns today, for their End of Year tour to the UK, in which Sarah says they should have a good representation.
- Freeview Channel 21 - Sky Digital Channel 89 - Telstra Clear Digital Channel 89 - The Rugby Channel will also replay the game, time and date to be confirmed
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The Canterbury Women’s Team played host to Auckland in the final of the NZRU Women’s Provincial Competition on Saturday, at Rugby Park.Site by Orbital Ltd