TEA GARDENS Lady Hawks hosted Clarence Town on a rare clear winter’s day on Saturday 21 June, with the match ending 4-26.
The first try went to Clarence Town’s Jemma Walters at the far left corner, only three minutes in, followed by a second for the Cobras courtesy of Emma Scriven in the far right corner.
Both were too far out for conversion kicks.
Clarence Town went on to dominate the first half, preventing the Hawks from finding the scoreline.
Play levelled out despite the two early tries, the ball seeming to bounce between the 30m lines even as the Hawks started pushing in the right direction.
With four minutes left in the first half, the Lady Hawks found the tryline, but couldn’t score.
The attempt was answered by Clarence Town with a vengeance, ending in Taylah Bultitude scoring close to the posts in the penultimate minute of the first half.
A sprint to the tryline by another Cobra in the final few seconds was foiled by an accidental step out-of-bounds, but it served as a reminder that there is still a window for a dash after the buzzer or the fifth tagging.
The Cobras returned to dominate the second half, while the Lady Hawks had trouble getting the ball back to halfway.
After only five minutes, a fourth try for Clarence Town was scored.
The Lady Hawks’ remained on the defence after that, rarely getting beyond the 30m line.
The fifth Clarence Town try was also a second for Jemma Walters, but this time it came with a solid conversion.
With just over 10 minutes to go, Lady Hawk Mikayla Perry found the tryline in the far-right corner after a bouncing kick from Abby – putting the team on the board.
Clarence Town’s sixth try, to Alexandra Merrick, was in the corner with four minutes to go, taking advantage of an enormous gap on the Hawks’ left side.
The final minutes saw several handovers as the Hawks attempted to break past halfway, with one promising run up the wing by Elizabeth Papamau.
But the final kick was scooped up by a Cobra as the siren wailed, ending the game 4-26.
By Thomas O’KEEFE
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