Jillaroos win over Kiwi Ferns — a rugby league at its best
BRAD Donald felt Australia’s 10-8 victory over New Zealand showed women’s rugby league at its best as he prepares for similarly significant challenges in the knockout stages.
Australia head into their semi-final against Papua New Guinea undefeated after narrowly holding off the Kiwi Ferns in York.
Tarryn Aiken opened the scoring but New Zealand hit back to lead before Jess Sergis set up Julia Robinson to score the ultimately decisive try.
Donald said: “That was a really tough game and in terms of defence, a scoreline like that in 80 minutes really shows what these ladies are capable of and how great women’s rugby league is. I said to the girls at half time that this sort of game was exactly what we were after.
“You can’t expect to walk in, win every game and just win a World Cup and the Kiwis really showed us that tonight. They gave us a great game and showed us that we really have things to work on in our attack.
“Yes, we had some errors but I’m really proud of how the girls bounced back overall.”
Ricky Henry was similarly proud of his players’ efforts despite coming out on the losing side. Tries from Apii Nicholls and Autumn-Rain Stephens Daly ensured the Kiwi Ferns pushed their opponents all the way, with Ali Brigginshaw’s conversion from Aiken’s opening score proving crucial.
The loss ensured that New Zealand finished second in Group B to set up a semi-final clash with England on Monday
and Henry believed his team sent out a warning message ahead of their clash with the home nation and a potential rematch with the Jillaroos in the final.
“I’m really proud of that performance, the girls really dug deep there and both teams played some really good footy out there,” he said.
“It’s fair to say that women’s rugby league is well and truly alive.
“I hope we sent a message to future teams. We’re trying not to get ahead of ourselves, but we scrambled hard tonight. We talked about effort and energy to keep us in the game, we knew they would be coming and worked really hard at crucial times in the game. We always knew they were going to be physical.” ■