The UNE Lions were “ecstatic” with their fifth placing in the opening round of the inaugural Aon Uni 7s Series.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Lions returned from Tasmania with 12 points, a few bruises and plenty of belief after beating the University of Canberra, who they had lost to in their final game on Friday, 20-12 in their play-off game.
It gave them three wins, one of them over eventual runners-up Bond University, and two losses for the tournament after earlier in the day thumping the University of Adelaide 27-nil.
Warialda’s Rhiannon Byers and Tamworth’s Abby Schmiedel both scored tries in that game, Byers crossing for their first and Schmiedel their fourth. The Lions then came out firing against UC, jumping out to a 15-nil lead at half-time.
“It was a really gutsy effort,” assistant coach/manager Dale Beattie said.
They completed the game with no reserves after losing two players to injury against Adelaide, and then two minutes into the second half another two to the blood bin.
“That highlighted what a great win it was and how determined the girls were,” Beattie said.
He and coach Tom Bower couldn’t have been happier with how they performed.
“We were ecstatic with their performance,” Beattie said.
It was the first time they had played together as a side, some of the players only meeting each other for the first time on Friday.
The only regional team in the competition, and like most Country teams, are quite spread out, they hadn’t had as much opportunity to train together as the other sides.
That showed on the first day with the combinations not clicking as well as they did on the second.
Regrouping after the first day, Beattie said they just really talked about all the things they did well.
“We focused on what worked for us and just trying to limit our mistakes and limit the negatives and really focus on our positives,” he said.
One of those was their defence.
“Our defensive structures I thought were excellent and we scrambled really well and connected really well particularly on the inside.
“I also thought our ball movement was really good. We engaged defences really well,” Beattie said.
He said the whole tournament had a World Series feel.
“It was fast and the quality from all eight universities was great,” he said.
“We can’t wait to go to Macquarie Uni in two weeks.”
“The quality only going to get better and better.”
Several of the Australian contingent are set to feature including Wallaroos’ Sharni Williams and Mahalia Murphy.
