NSW Junior Rugby Union
On 11th to 13th of July Rugby Australia ran a Schoolgirls and U18s Nationals at the Narrabeen Academy of Sport. Sydney Juniors (SJRU) and NSW Country Juniors (CJRU) both entered teams into this tournament alongside teams from Brisbane Juniors, Melbourne Rebels, ACT Schoolgirls (Blue & White), Rugby WA and Rugby SA. The two NSW teams performed admirably with both of them making the final - SJRU taking out the trophy.
We asked each team to give us a brief report from the tournament.
The NSW Country U17 Girls had another successful National U18 School Girls Tournament this year finishing as the number 2 side in Australia. This is the second year in a row the NSW Country girls have finish 2nd in this Tournament. Competing against teams from Western Australia,Victoria, ACT, South Australia, Queensland and NSW the team finished second in their pool before coming up against a tough Brisbane side in the semi-final. The Country team defeated Brisbane in a close match 7 – 5 to move into the final against Sydney. The final was a tough match with NSW Country unable to match the bigger Sydney side but continued to work hard and challenge the Sydney team before going down 46 – 5.
This is a great effort and achievement for our younger country girls. With the players coming from all over country NSW, they had only 2 training sessions as a team since early June and played 1 match together prior to competing in the National Tournament.
Michelle Edwards (NSW Country)
The SJRU team was based around the 2019 selected U17’s girls that are due to play against NSW Country on 4th August. But with a number of these girls unavailable for this tournament due to other commitments, we were able to augment the squad with team with girls who had just moved out of the U17 age bracket but were eligible still as this was an U18s event. Having said that we still had to deal with player availability issues and on the second day only had a reserve bench of two players.
The vibe amongst the team and parents was relaxed on the first day as the girls prepared to play there first game as a team. Round 1 was a good start but the number of penalties conceded by the team was high (focusing on high tackles), but we walked away with a 7-0 against the WA team. Round 2 wasn’t long after having lunch and it was a slow process in getting the team motivated on a full stomach. We took on one of the ACT teams and the team was showing improvement with less penalties and a successful win 12-0.
The second day brought with it Round 3 and a good challenge to for the team to start learning from their day 1 mistakes against the Brisbane Juniors side. The bench was slim with only two reserves available providing another hurdle however the team was starting to find a bit of rhythm. The game was tight with no scores on the board up until the last two minutes of the game before we conceded a penalty in front of the posts, giving Brisbane an easy 3 points and the victory 3-0. Following this game we then had the tournament favourite (Melbourne Rebels!) to meet and battle it out for a spot in the Grand Final. The team couldn’t have played any better - they were first to score and the momentum just kept on rolling through. The crowd grew along the sideline as the girls dominated the opposition and finished with the win and a final score of 15-5.
With a couple of players being unavailable for the final day of the tournament and the already skinny bench, the managers went into overdrive to chase up the team and make sure the maximum number of girls would turn up for the final. The efforts paid off as the bench boasted five girls which was going to be important as the final was a longer format 60 min game. The hour long game format suited the girls as they grew stronger as the game progressed, as they had during the entire competition. The final scored ended up with the Sydney Girls defeating the other NSW based side (NSW Country) 46-5.
A "Merit Team" for the tournament was announced following the final with two of the SJRU girls being named - Leilani Wilson & Leanne Toomalatai.
The biggest complement is truly to Kyle Nettleton. Kyle is a very mature 19yr old Player & Coach that has wonderful style in coaching the team and seriously is a valued person in the rugby community.
Dion Epplett U18’s Manager
