Wanneroo Ladies Preliminary Final v Cottesloe at Rugby Park

Result:                  Wanneroo 5 - Cottesloe 17

It was very pleasing to see so many of our senior male players at the game supporting the girls. The game itself was a hard fought affair with neither side prepared to yield an inch.

Cottesloe applied early pressure and seemed to get the rub of the green but Wanneroo defended fiercely. Their tackles eventually forced Cott to concede a penalty. Egg grabbed the ball on her own 22, tapped it and took off quickly. She made good ground before feeding Tam who continued the momentum up to the half way and set up a ruck. The ball was spun out and it seemed like most of the team were involved in a good inter passing run that forced Cott back before a little bit of over eager play led to a turn over. The Cottesloe winger made a break but was barrelled into touch. Liana was ever present and Nic and Lisa were never far behind. Subsequent play saw Cottesloe knock on and unfortunately for them the ref awarded a scrum. Wanneroo immediately demonstrated their excellent scrummage technique and drove Cott backwards at a hundred miles an hour. The girls in blue didn’t know if they were Arthur or Martha, but they did know they had been done and they continued to be done at every scrum thereafter, but to their credit they never stopped trying.

Sera, Egg and Tam were involved in a good passage of attacking play before Cott responded with a high kick to the wing which was brilliantly and bravely fielded by Toto. She was swamped by blue shirts and driven backwards, but managed to retain possession until her support got there. The green machine managed to stop the drive and then forced Cottesloe back before being awarded another scrum. From that scrum Wanneroo worked their way to within a metre of the Cottesloe try line, but in their eagerness they conceded another penalty. From the ensuing line out Cottesloe moved the ball to the midfield and looked to be on their way to the try line, until Carmel the human tackle machine drilled the ball carrier and stopped her dead.

It was tit for tat for a while until Cottesloe were awarded a penalty about 10 metres out from the Wanneroo try line. One of their players took a quick tap & go, caught our girls napping and crashed over for a soft unconverted try. 5 – 0 to Cottesloe.

This mistake fired up the Wanneroo team and they took the game to Cott. Tamara eluded the defence, made a very good break and seemed to have the line at her mercy before being caught by a last gasp dive which led to a turn over. The ref should have awarded a penalty to Tamara because the tackler grabbed her by the collar with both hands. Wanneroo continued to dominate the scrums, the line outs were fairly evenly shared and both sides worked hard but Wanneroo made more handling errors. The ladies won a reasonable supply of ball but slow, balloon passes denied them the opportunity to create space and free up their quick runners out wide.

Toto took a quick penalty and carved her way through Cottesloe’s defence before feeding her support runners. The support took the ball on brilliantly, but once again over anxiousness led to a turn over which Cott kicked ahead and then knocked on. Again the Wanneroo scrum steam-rolled their opponents and provided quality possession for the backs. Eventually the ball was fed out to Tamara who shimmied her way through the defence before feeding Sera on the burst. The poor Cottesloe player who happened to be in her way was swatted aside as Sera drove over the line and equalled the score right on the bell. Half Time Wanneroo 5 Cottesloe 5

The second half opened well with most of the girls putting in strong individual efforts, but Cottesloe’s experience was beginning to tell. They made few mistakes and applied constant defensive pressure, particularly in the midfield area. They forced Wanneroo into poor passing options or denied them the opportunity to get the ball out wide.

Wanneroo continued to work hard and put in some big hits. Dimi had a couple of good runs, Karen drove the ball up well, Carmel was sound under the high ball and tackled well, Flick ran great support lines, harried her opposite number continuously  and covered well, Ave seemed tireless and revelled in the contact.

Cottesloe gradually gained more possession and attacked through the midfield and out wide, but Wanneroo somehow kept them at bay. At one stage Cott had about 10 players in a driving maul that breached the green try line, but Wanneroo held them up.

Tamara and Mandy then combined to break out of defence and set up a ruck. The ref awarded a scrum to Cottesloe which the green machine drove backwards. As soon as the Cott half back put her hands on the ball Flick grabbed her, but the ref penalized her saying that the ball wasn’t out. The easy 3 pointer was missed when the ball rebounded off the posts, but Cott got another bite at the cherry when the ref again awarded them a dubious penalty after some excellent defence by Wanneroo. A Cott player took a quick tap and go and ran left before passing the ball out to the wing. The winger strolled over for what should have been the easiest of tries in the corner, but got carried away and tried to post the ball under the posts. The Wanneroo girls showed their true grit by grabbing the idiot ball carrier and wrapping her up to prevent the touch down.

From another scrum going backwards, Cottesloe managed to get a ball out to the right of the field and the receiver cleverly turned the ball back inside to allow the centre a clear run to the try line as the green defenders drifted across. The conversion made it 12 – 5 to Cottesloe           

Wanneroo restarted strongly and pressured the catcher, but were penalized for an infringement. Undeterred, the greens again stopped a Cottesloe break out and forced a turn over at the ruck. Karen took the pill and had a good run that was well supported by her forwards. The ensuing ruck ball was passed to Tamara but she was illegally brought down and Wanneroo were awarded a penalty. Ave took a quick tap and charged determinedly into the Cott pack with great support to set up a good ruck. The attack went right and had Cottesloe stretched, but the Wanneroo winger was denied the opportunity to attack her opposite number when the play changed direction to the left. Excellent support play eventually got the ball to Toto on the left wing and she went for the line before being driven into touch by a very good tackle.

From the line out Cottesloe were awarded a penalty in the midfield, which they ran. A good tackle stopped their progress and they were awarded the dubious honour of a scrum. Either the Cottesloe pack were tired or our girls were too fired up, but Wanneroo were penalized for pushing early and Cottesloe were let off the hook. The blue team then took the game to Wanneroo and forced them to defend continually. Although the Wanneroo defence was good, Cottesloe managed to maintain possession  and recycle the ball until Wanneroo eventually ran out of numbers and the outside centre ran a very good angle to score under the posts. The conversion was missed and the score was 17 – 5 to Cottesloe   

Carmel took the drop out & followed up quickly to hit the catcher and Cott were forced to punt the ball high to relieve the pressure. Cottesloe were penalized for tackling the catcher in the air and Wanneroo immediately drove the ball into the opposing 22. The ball was won and recycled and then won and recycled again. The girls inter passing was excellent and they were in possession and attacking the Cottesloe try line when the ref blew for no side.

Final score:     Wanneroo 5 – Cottesloe 17

Our ladies did the club, their coaches and themselves proud by playing their way through to their first semi final. They are the club’s most successful senior team this season and they deserve all the accolades that may come their way.

Theirs has been a journey of discovery and achievement. In two seasons they have gone from novices, and sometimes nervous hopefuls, to seasoned players with a great work ethic and a strong belief in their own ability. Their team spirit, comradeship and determination to succeed is obvious. 

They have enhanced our club with their effervescence and the very obvious display of pleasure in everything they do. It would have been nice if they could have made the final and brought the trophy home, but it’s still early days for them. They threw away the ‘L’ plates last year and have got rid of the ‘P’ plates this year, so the rest of the competition had better look out next year.

Congratulations from the committee, the players and the supporters ladies 

Bill Watt