The most successful Brumbies schoolgirls team ever, and made up of girls from the ACT, Southern Inland and South Coast Monaro, have narrowly gone down to NSWCHS Schoolgirls in Sydney on Wednesday (5 September 2012).
Before going to Sydney, the Brumbies Schoolgirls played a lead up game in Canberra against Western Sydney Combined High Schools at St Edmunds College, defeating them 20 – 19 with a penalty goal on full time from Taylor Stanford. This was the first time Brumbies schoolgirls had defeated the Western Sydney girls over a ten year period.
The Brumbies then took on NSW Combined High Schools (NSWCHS) at Merrylands High School in Sydney on Wednesday. The girls got off to a great start with a try scored from a slick backs move with Courtney Livermore crossing over next to the posts. The NSW team then crossed for two tries to have the score at 12-5 at half time.
The Brumbies hit back straight after half time with a great team try eventually scored by winger Katelyn Veitch. NSW scored again to have a 9 point lead with 10 minutes to go. The Brumbies never say die attitude saw them start to move the ball to their strength in mid field where ‘Player of the Match’ Courtney Livermore dominated with two impressive linebreaks.
Two length of the field tries to Livermore and Tayla Stanford put them back in the lead at 22-19 with minutes to go. Unfortunately the Brumbies girls where denied a historic victory on full time with the NSW number 8 crashing over in the left corner from a scrum win to secure victory for the NSW team.
Credit should go to the coaching staff of Scott Harris, Matt Conn and manager Kym Darmody. “The girls have shown great attitude and discipline throughout the last month and should be congratulated on a fantastic program this year”Harris said.
With the inclusion of women’s rugby sevens as one of the newest team sports in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, it is anticipated that programs such as these will create an incentive for new players to get involved in the sport of rugby.
Brumbies Rugby are also sending a schoolgirls 7’s team to the Gold Coast for this years Nationals Schools 7’s tournament on the 13 and 14 of October.
