Bears triumph great sign for the Maroons
BURLEIGH Bears’ powerhouse women’s rugby league team has added the inaugural Holcim Cup to a jam-packed trophy cabinet.
The Burleigh women won 28-10 over a talented Souths Logan Magpies in the Cup final, which was created to fill the void left when the inaugural BHP Cup was cancelled because of coronavirus.
With no state league competition to play in, the Holcim Cup was developed to give future Origin players meaningful competition in southeast Queensland.
If Burleigh’s performance is anything to go by, the Maroons will be ready to win their first series against NSW after losses in 2018 and 2019.
Legendary Jillaroo Tahnee Norris, who coaches the Bears, said she expected as many as nine players from the triumphant side to don Origin jerseys for both states.
“We’ll probably have eight or nine girls get NRLW contracts from this group and around that number playing Origin,” the four-time World Cup Jillaroo said. “The way they’ve played we’ll have a fair representation.
“It just shows there are a number of girls coming through we want to expose to the next level.
“The pathways are definitely getting there and they can see the stepping stones out of our division.”
Winger Tarnisha Lyons crossed for a hat-trick to put her hand up for representative honours but her success was born from a dominant defensive display.
Led by dual international Millie Boyle, the Bears ruled the middle of the field.
Norris said the game had been a brutal encounter by design.
“We knew we’d have to win the middle and that’s what the girls did,” she said.
“It was a pretty brutal game and we needed a big game defensively when they have some good ball runners and Ali Brigginshaw (Broncos captain) leading them around.
“We always knew it would be tough, especially with the forward pack they have.
“We do a lot of work on our defence at training and how hard we hit each other at our training sessions really came out in our game.
“(Winning the middle) gave us the opportunity to spread the ball wide and Tarnisha is a good finisher so she ended up with three. There was great movement from our halves with Lauren Brown and Zahara Temara.”
There will be little time to celebrate because the NRLW season kicks off later this month before a State of Origin clash on November 13.