4 September 2008
Our ladies met full of confidence but quietly nervous at the PBRUFC grounds at 7.30am to await the bus...which was late due to the City to Surf event, and after getting caught in traffic the nerves were racing and panic was setting in as the clock ticked around to 8.40am, with kick off at 9.15. Finally they arrived and were shuttled secretly into the athletics stadium. After a quick warm up and switching on there was a giant motivating team talk by team captain Stacey Kilmister and vice captain Nikki McLoughlin, then it was back into the change rooms to do the pre-game rev up. Stacey served it up big time and they confidently headed onto the park. It was game on!
The game started with a rush of adrenaline and fast play. Mean breaks by the loosies and an awesome defence were the major keys in this game. The first score came through Puawai easily slotting a penalty goal after Cottesloe held on in a ruck. After a number of Baysie infringements, fast play by Cottesloe allowed them to score midway through the first half to lead 5-3. Not long after it looked to be try time for Baysie when Stacey headed down the sideline and was only metres from the try line only to be yanked out by Cott by the hair! Not a very girlie thing to do — but hey, this is rugby. After a few (well deserved) retaliations by Puawai and Kate from Cott, each team had one player in the bin!
Mid way through the second half Baysie finally scored their first (and only) try through some sensational forward work by Vanya and quick feeding of the ball from Jodi out to loosie Louise seagulling on the wing, allowing her to cut back inside, beating five Cottesloe players to score the try. An unsuccessful conversion kept the scores close at 8-5 in favour of Baysie. With line ball calls from the referee and with Cottesloe helping the referee to do his job, a penalty for Cott with one minute to go looked certain to result in a draw, however Cott elected to run it and their forwards knocked on and it was game over for them!
Baysie ladies were again successful, back to back premiers. It was celebrations all round with a barbecue in the park, when our Under 18s also brought home another premiership trophy after their third consecutive year in the finals! Nice work ladies, nice work lads. Thanks to the dozens of supporters who gave up their Sunday morning sleep in to come and cheers us on. Bring on 2009 for the hat-trick! :)
