HEROES IN HALF-SHELLS HALT MENDEL’S MARCH TO FINAL Teenage Mutant Ninja Taggers 21 – 10 No Woman No Try NWNT’s insatiable rise to Pembroke glory was cut short against a well-organized and pacy Teenage Mutant Ninja Taggers in the semi finals of the Division 1 Cup last night. The young Genetics side had enjoyed mostly one-sided affairs in previous encounters but last night came up against an experienced side lethal on the counter attack. Buoyed by the return of the likes of Hanrahan and Kearney after his call-up with the victorious Lions in Australia, NWNT were in confident mood. However the Ninja Taggers were ninja in defence, restricting space for the NWNT runners and ruthless in attack, scoring some quick early tries to go 8-0 up. NWNT finally registered their first score when good work from Tam and Keaney through the hands fed Jones on the wing to skip past her defender and touch down in the corner under pressure. The NWNT resurgence continued with a pick-up try from Keaney in the right corner and further scores from Stewart galloping past the Ninja defence line to make it 14-6 at half-time. A strong start was required in the second period but early hopes were thwarted with a couple of girl tries from the Ninja Taggers who punished NWNT mistakes on the counter. However a hallmark of this Genetics team is a fighting spirit that means they don’t know when to lie down. NWNT responded with a great girl try from Bibollet-Bahena after an inside ball from Stewart allowed Bibollet-Bahena twirl past her defenders and score. Another score this time from second half replacement Twinkle-toes McLaughlin reduced the deficit but the Ninja Taggers were out of sight by this stage and closed out the game to book their place in the final next week. NWNT will have to settle for a 3rd/4th play-off safe in the knowledge that a top 4 finish is an incredible achievement for this fledgling group. After the game, we spoke to an exhausted but proud birthday-boy Jimmy Keaney, “it was a great effort from the guys, the cake and birthday wishes were smashing. The game? Oh yeah, a second great effort from the guys, just outplayed by a better team on the day. But we’ll pick ourselves up for one last fight next week.” And what more motivation does this team need than knowing they will be without two of their stars, Stewart and Bibollet-Bahena - let’s do it for them!
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 14:05:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015