The
team departed on Wednesday 25th May, after a final practice on home turf.
They spent the first evening settling into the Comfort Inn and mentally
preparing themselves (i.e. watching endless episodes of “CSI”)
for the next day’s game.
As
Brentwood entered the tournament seeded number one (due to their win the
year before and this year’s victory at the Islands tournament),
their first game was against the lowest seeded team, Mulgrave School.
The seeding committee had obviously done their homework, as Brentwood
easily defeated Mulgrave with a 70 – 0 win. It was a truly beautiful
game of rugby, and the Mulgrave girls were overheard admitting that the
Brentwood girls were the most graceful rugby players that they had ever
seen. Maybe the reason is that most of the Brentwood back line is comprised
of dancers!
After
a lazy morning sleeping in, the girls made the short trek from the motel
to the field to attack their second adversaries, hopefully with the same
ferocity as the day before. Moscrop School, however, proved to be serious
competition, and the match turned out to be less of a game and more of
a fight. Marlee Hahn set the dominating tone of the match when she flew
into a Moscrop player who had caught her initial kick-off, and the rest
of the game followed according to Brentwood’s wishes. The final
score was 17 – 5, thankfully without any serious injuries to Brentwood
girls.
By
the third and final afternoon, the players were in more pain than they
had experienced all week, and yet they knew that on Saturday it must all
be put aside if they wanted to win the tournament. The team they faced
was McRoberts, the same team they had faced, and beaten, in the final
last year. McRoberts’ coaches had been noting the performance of
all the Brentwood girls in the first two games, and were able to give
coaching notes regarding the strength and weakness of each individual
Brentwood player. The McRoberts girls did not need much encouragement
— they had not forgotten the result of the previous year, and they
were eager to show Brentwood up in Saturday’s final. Each team was
well matched in ability, and the ball spent equal time in each end zone.
McRoberts scored the first try, but the ball was touched down far off
to the side, so their kicker was not able to put the conversion through
the posts. Brentwood was not dismayed, however, and fly-half Marlee made
a great break and scored, tying the match at five. Brentwood’s kicker
(Frances Candy) appreciated Marlee’s placement of the touch down
(right behind the left post), and sailed the ball through the posts, making
the score 7–5 Brentwood. The second half resulted in no tries or
penalty kicks, only injuries to the McRoberts team, who easily filled
in the places from their twelve available substitutes.
When
the whistle finally blew, the girls rejoiced because they had won, because
it was over, and because their determination had pulled them through.
It really was a spectacular performance of will power, and Brentwood won
purely because they wanted it more, and they were willing to work until
they had it. When congratulated on her game, Marlee perfectly summarised
the essence of the match, saying “That wasn’t a game –
it was a war.”
On
behalf of the girls, a huge thank you goes out to all the parents, siblings,
grandparents, friends (and the biggest fan of all, Mr. Digby), for their
endless support at all the games throughout the season. Their presence
was a huge encouragement to the entire team, and the initiative on the
sidelines -- great ideas like sponging the players down at half-time --
reflected care and support from the parents. A special thank-you goes
to “Team Mom” Adria Hahn, for her dedication and gift for
capturing all
the great moments on film. All the girls would like to apologise to their
parents for the worries and heart palpitations
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