Tough finish for Central Vipers

The Mid Central Vipers women finished fourth at the national rugby league competition in Rotorua at the weekend.

The Vipers ran out of steam on the final day of the three-day tournament, losing their third-andfourth-playoff game 30-4 to Canterbury on Sunday.

On Saturday the Vipers beat Wai-coa-bay 14-0, then lost 26-10 to Counties Manukau, where the Vipers were leading 12-0 early in the game and 12-10, before being overrun by the strong Counties Manukau team.

On Friday they beat the Auckland development 10-0, but lost to Canterbury 14-12 and Akarana (Auckland) 16-4.

It is not quite what Vipers coach John Tuala was after, because the side have finished third and second in the past two years.

They had two wins and four losses this season.

‘‘It’s obviously not the bottom of the pile, which is always a bonus, but we’ve definitely got a good squad to work with for the next season,’’ he said. ‘‘I believe there was 15 rookies all up.’’

The Vipers rarely got to train together before the tournament and didn’t have any pre-season games because Wellington pulled out of their warmup fixture due to injuries.

That mean the Vipers struggled to gel at the start of the tournament, but were a lot better after the first game.

Tuala plans to increase their work together before nationals next year and hopes to get preseason fixtures.

Their standout player was former Kiwi Fern and Black Fern Trisha Hina, who started in the centres, but shifted into the halves to cover injury and spent the rest of the weekend there.

Second rower Chrisy-ann Sinclair and standoff Talia Poutini-lawrence also played well.

Hooker Lee-arna Nepia was selected for the Kiwi Ferns wider training squad.