CRRL: Open Women's Tackle: Young Dragons ready to prove a point

[RNA]

   The Valley Dragons have “come to prove a point” in this year’s Open Women’s Tackle competition, according to captain Tayla Croker.

Boasting one of the youngest teams in the competition, the Dragons continued to push their case as a finals contender with a 40-0 win against a valiant West Belconnen Warriors outfit at Greenway Oval on Friday night.

“Most of our players being from Tarsha Gale Cup means that we are a lot younger than the rest of the teams, most of us are under 18,” Croker said. “We’ve come to prove the point that just because we are younger, it doesn’t mean we are not experienced, we are just as good or better.”

The Dragons marked their intention in the first minute of the game when Sandra Dalton crossed the line to score but according to Croker, their performance didn’t meet their own standards.

“We didn’t really lift our intensity at all from the start,” Croker said. “In the first minute, we scored a try from the kickoff, it was from then that the enthusiasm went down.”

The Warriors defended in numbers and saved a certain try minutes later when Sharna Turton made a desperate diving tackle to prevent Alannah Fraser from scoring.

However, the Warrior’s resistance was unable to last much longer and Dragons prop Nirvana Ngan-Woo broke the line and steamrolled over the fullback to score.

The tries kept coming for the Dragons as Dorothy Carroll scored a double while Caitlin Fazey-Robinson, Emylee Hawke and Jana Teivonen all scored a try each.

However, the highlight of the evening came late in the second half when Ngan-Woo busted through the line before managing to offload to halfback Chloe Smith who scored under the posts.

“I was pleased with that,” said Ngan-Woo. “It’s good to know the girls are always supporting and that they have your back.”

Although Ngan-Woo was pleased with that passage of play, she echoed her captain’s words when reflecting on the match as a whole.

“There’s areas that I need to improve on and we all need to improve on, but it’s only up from here,” Ngan-Woo said. “We need to improve our talking – there wasn’t enough talking out there -, our defence and just our communication overall.”

The win sees the Valley Dragons further cement their position in fourth place, while the West Belconnen Warriors drop down one place to sixth.

Photo thanks to Michael Thompson Photography



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