By THELMA LEONARD

THE second last round of the Western Womens Rugby League competition was played on the weekend, with the Castlereagh Cougars travelling to Mudgee to play the Midwest Brumbies sides. 

With the Brumbies Under 18s side forfeiting prior to the day, only 4 sides had to make the trip.

Under 12s

The Under 12s had an exciting start to their game with a confident line up, they were able to inject early into the game, with individuals working on securing the ball and trying their best to play the set out without turning over the ball. 

A standout power hitter, Elara Jenner, grew more confident in making tackles and resetting at the line ready to stop the Brumbies from breaking the line. 

Super effort from the girls, who focused more on playing the game and helping the opposition through their ultimate forfeit. They chose to put their hands up to help a rival team play out the second half after some Brumbies girls were injured. 

Coach, Poi Birtles expressed how proud she was of the girls efforts and sportsmanship shown.

Under 14s

The under 14’s girls came up against a well drilled Mudgee team. 

While Mudgee got out to an early lead, the Cougars girls did well to regain their composure and fight their way back into the game despite the challenging conditions, with the heat. 

Some tough defence and big runs in the second half saw them finish the game off really strongly despite the final score.

The girls are excited to carry that form into the last game of their season this coming weekend against the Goannas. 

The girls going down this game by just 1 point, 13-12 to the Brumbies.

Under 16s

The Under 16’s girls started a little slow this weekend with a few small errors, however, they soon found their feet and came back fighting. 

With their strong attack, skillful ball movement and brilliant defence the girls managed to get the Brumbies on the back foot. 

The whole team dug deep in the dying minutes of the game with some outstanding defence on the line, lead by the number 10 Sharna Forgione, to stop any tries and letting the girls come away with the win in a real nail bitter of a game. 

Congrats to every single one of the girls who all worked for each other and never gave up in the very hot conditions. 

It was by far the best game the girls have played all season, and hopefully they can keep the momentum going into the final round. 

Castlereagh Under 16s were the winners with a 20-16 scoreline.

Opens

The opens girls, despite being lower on numbers than previous weeks, put in a very strong performance against the Midwest Brumbies. 

They were very thankful that a couple of under 18’s made the trip to help out despite their game being forfeited. 

Both girls played very crucial roles in the game and the opens girls were super proud of their efforts. 

After a few handling errors in the first half, the girls settled into a good rhythm with the ball and took a few risks, trying some new things with big movements of the football that payed off and excited the crowd. 

The kicking game of Tori Canham was on point which led to a brilliant runaway try from Hannah Towns. 

A few forwards also crossed the line with some very strong running up the middle of the field. 

The girls defence was very dominant this weekend, which allowed them to keep possession of the ball throughout most of the game.

This certainly helped in the very hot conditions, leading to a very convincing win in the end, with a score of 46-8. 

Castlereagh will now travel to Wellington where they look to use the momentum of this victory to build a strong platform going into the final round of the regular season against the first placed Goannas.