The Glenmore Park Brumbies advanced to the major semi-final next weekend after they defeated Mounties 24-16 in the Harvey Norman NSW Women’s Premiership Qualifying Final staged at Cabramatta’s New Era Stadium.
Glenmore Park will meet minor premiers the Redfern All Blacks on Sunday with the winner to advance to the grand final on September 24 at Leichhardt Oval.
Down 16-10, the never-say-die Glenmore Park scored two tries in five minutes to snatch victory. Centre Monique Donovan showed exceptional pace to race 70 metres to score in the 66th minute before Stevie-Leigh Foster pounced on a cross-field kick.
They made sure of the victory with just under three minutes remaining when Sarah Togatuki showed great strength to score her second try of the game.
Despite Mounties having the better of field position in the early stages, it was Glenmore Park that opened the scoring after Togatuki pounced on a kick that bounced awkwardly for Mounties full-back Elise Robins.
Simaima Taufa crossed in the 26th minute but the try was not awarded after the final pass was deemed to have gone forward. It didn’t matter as much as Taufa put Mounties on the attack with a powerful run up the middle. Two tackles later, hooker Sharnita Woodman burrowed over to score from dummy-half.
With 15 seconds remaining in the first half, Mounties hit the front for the first time in the game when Williams dived over after a wonderful off-load from Teina Clark. Glenmore Park levelled up at 10-all early in the second half before Mounties re-claimed the lead with a try from Dahlia Tahu. Mounties will now meet North Newcastle in next week’s elimination semi-final after the latter held off a second half comeback from the Greenacre Tigers to win 32-18.
North Newcastle were off to a flying start with Australian international Caitlin Moran splitting the defence to score within 90 seconds of action. Another international in Isabelle Kelly showed her speed and strength to perform a fantastic 60-metre individual effort to score a four pointer.
North Newcastle stretched their lead to 18-0 within a minute of the re-commencement of the second half when Moran followed through a break from Rebecca Young to score. Greenacre began their fightback in the 45th minute with a try to Raecene McGregor before further tries to Elianna Walton and Tiarna Dunn saw them reduce the deficit to just four points with 20 minutes remaining. But Moran showed her experience by putting Kelly over for her second try in 15 minutes remaining.
