Australian Women’s 18’s Reps 26.01.11
Congratulations to Manly Women’s Opens Captain Sarah Peattie and Jenna Hitch who were members of the successful Australian Womens 18?s team that beat New Zealand three games to nil in the recent Trans Tasman series held in Canberra. Manly Captain Sarah Peattie had the great honour of captaining the Australian team and additionally won the Coaches Award. TFA series rep
[nggallery id=4]
Australia vs New Zealand Game 3: Australia have completed a 3-0 Series win today after defeating New Zealand 12-5 in Canberra this morning. New Zealand got away to a bright start – one that matched the hot conditions – with Natasha Kara throwing a long looping ball to Tyla Nathan-Wong who went over untouched in the corner. The Aussies found their stride soon after when Ashleigh Quinlan ran hard and created an overlap for Sarah Peattie, who has had an excellent tournament, to score. Marama Davis, who had troubled the Australian defence all series with her speed and step combination, produced her trademark play from 20 metres out and found Talisua Tipelu in support to give New Zealand the lead again.
Strong yards from Australia brought them quickly back to New Zealand’s line and Kate McCarthy made no mistake in crossing it with a classy dive. The game had been evenly matched until this point but Australia quickly found top gear and the rest of the half belonged to them. Tracy Hill started things off with a blistering length of the field run. She scooted down the left-hand from deep in her own half and New Zealand’s defence couldn’t match her pace. Simone Smith was next to step, literally, into the spotlight when she got around her defenders with great speed. Kate McCarthy then broke through the middle for another touchdown and in a flash Australia had taken the game from the New Zealanders.
Australia continued their raids and when Sarah Peattie took a neat shortball for her second touchdown had increased their lead to 6-2. Quinlan added to the tally and halftime was punctuated with Rylie Seamark scooting inside the in-goal and finding Roxette Mura free. The second half began in an identical fashion when Mura was again the beneficiary of an in-goal pass. Australia continued to dominate and Simone Smith, along with Tracy Hill also picked up double touchdowns for the match.
To their credit New Zealand tightened their defence during the remainder of the half and took the game back to Australia. Wareiko Grieg capped off a strong tournament with a touchdown, Natasha Kara made an excellent touchdown out wide and Marama Davis also crossed the line to add some respectability to the scoreboard. Mura also scored her third touchdown of the game to secure Australia deserved 13-4 victory and a clean sweep of the series.
Australia vs New Zealand Game 2: The Australian 18’s Girls have defeated New Zealand 8-3 to take out their division at the Youth Trans Tasman Series. Australia started where they left off in the last game, with Brittany Spencer diving through the New Zealand defence to score the opening touchdown in the first minutes. Five minutes later, some fast play by Kate McCarthy lead to Melissa Peters diving through New Zealand’s defence to make the score 2-0 to Australia. But New Zealand hit back the next set, with Marama Davis scoring her fourth touchdown of the tournament, to cut Australia’s lead to just one. Peters then put her name on the scoreboard again, taking an intercept and running the length of the field to score for the Australians. New Zealand’s Davis then showed why she has been one of New Zealand’s best, slicing through Australia’s defence, this time setting up a touchdown for Madison Bartlett. Some great work and fast play from Charlotte Caslick set up her captain Sarah Peattie to score her second touchdown of the tournament. It was in the last 30 seconds Australia scored again, with Peters setting up Spencer to make the halftime score 5-2 to Australia.
It was early on in the second half when Australia scored again, with Peters involved again, this time with help from Emily Reed to set up Jenna Hitch to score. The next minute Simone Smith passed to a lightning fast Peattie to make the score 7-2 to Australia. Defence shored up after Peattie’s touchdown, with neither team unable to penetrate the defence until the last ten seconds. Australia threw the ball wide, with Rylie Seamark diving in the corner to make the final score 8-3 to Australia
Australia vs New Zealand Game 1: The opening game of the 2011 Youth Trans Tasman Series got underway beneath a scorching hot afternoon sun; both teams were desperate for a victory to kick-start their Under 18s Series as well as setting the tone for their respective nation’s chances in the other grades. Both teams showed some class in the opening exchanges but couldn’t find a way though the defence. It was a high tempo start with Australia having the better of play, attacking the fringes with success. Melissa Peters was first to crack through, showing some excellent pace and acceleration to get outside the New Zealand defence and score out wide.
The searing heat took its toll midway through the first half as the teams consolidated their position. New Zealand’s Charlotte Davis was busy in the middle of the field and almost released #11 on the wing who was ready to cross the line but the ball was knocked down by some canny Australian defence. Australia had the better of the next period of play, peppering the New Zealand line who had to pull off save after save. They looked up to the task until Ashleigh Quinlan snuck through some tired defence to put Australia 2-0 up. New Zealand looked in further trouble when – while in excellent field position through some good yards out wide – Australia’s Roxette Mura took an intercept and looked like getting away. A late call from the sideline referee saved the kiwi girls and Marama Davis then stepped up with an excellent individual try to get her team back in contention. She produced a quickie play, stepped right and then dived through the Australian middles.
With halftime beckoning, Sarah Peattie hit back for Australia and scored in the middle of the field almost immediately and Australia took a handy 3-1 lead. The Aussie’s lead was extended further at the commencement of the match when Kate McCarthy caught New Zealand napping with a blistering individual run, stepping two players and getting the crowd to their feet. A minute later an identical try was almost scored by Melissa Peters but Olivia Smeele was there for the save. Time and the game was running out for New Zealand and it was up to Marama Davis to lift her team again. She showed the ball, threw two dummies and cut between the Australian middle and link to core and narrow the margin slightly.
The game concluded with a similar script; Australia scored twice more through Rylie Seamark and Tracy Hill out wide with their captain Sarah Peattie playing a strong hand in all their plays. Davis snuck through for her third touchdown but her individual effort wasn’t enough to halt the well-drilled Australians who rounded out their victory though a final touchdown to Simone Smith. Charlotte Davis and Tyla Nathan-Wong were also strong for New Zealand with Melissa Peters and Tracy Hill starring in Australia’s win.