Round 4 2017 Lionesses vs Palmyra RUFC

Palmyra RUFC travelled to take on Southern Lionesses in this round 4 match.

Southern Lionesses were looking for an improvement from the last game vs Nedlands.

The first half was close fought with good play by both teams. Palmyra proved more clinical when they created chances and led by 2 tries to nil at half time.

The second half was not as good for the Lionesses and Palmyra added 4 more tries. Palmyra proved too strong all over the field.

Southern Lions coach Kev Thornton provided the following summary of the game -

"A good turn out of players today allowed us to field a full team against Palmyra. We even had a couple on the bench. With the very warm conditions a few more would've been a blessing.

The opposition came fully stocked and were determined to make sure the Lionesses knew they had a game on their hands. I'm not sure our girls had even touched the ball before they scored their first try. That was the wake up we needed. Our forwards got their hands on the ball and started to give the backs some good go forward ball. Our scrums were a lot stronger, maybe it was the return of our rock Tarnz, but we competed well. Our backs ran hard and took the ball into contact well. Most of the 50/50 calls at the breakdown seemed to go against us so momentum was lost. Palmyra capitalized on those calls but through our determined defence only managed to score one more time before half time.

Talk about a game of "Two Half's ". We struggled to get our hands on the ball at the start of the second spell. The girls defence was amazing at the start. They tackled anyone who had the ball and stopped certain tries being scored.
The few times we got our hands on the ball we ran hard and supported each other well. Unfortunately, we turned over ball at crucial times and were on the wrong side of the 50/50 calls. With the combination of a lot of tackling and the hot weather, the flood gates opened up late in the second half.

To the girls credit they never stopped trying. Especially our Player of the Day Ally Reid. Her work rate was enormous along with many others.

So many positives the coaches can take from the game and work on at training. We need all the players to turn up so that we can continue to improve.

Thanks again to all our supporters who turned up. Very much appreciated.

Finally a big thank you to our sponsors, WA Samoa Association WA Samoa Onlinefor our after match dress shirts. Those who made the effort to wear them looked absolutely amazing, even PJ. So let's all get them on next week for our Clubs 30 year celebrations and hopefully we can sing the club song after the game.

Cheers.

Halftime Lionesses 0-10 Palmyra
Full time Lionesses 0-32 Palmyra"

Hard luck to the coaches and players. We know the Ladies are capable of plenty of wins this year.

Team Selection

1 Tanya Leituala
2 Tina Rossiter
3 Danielle Parker
4 Tahni Willan
5 Mary Makai
6 Maria Maea
7 Peninnah Javapro
8 Ally Reid
9 Cecilia Strickland
10 Caitlin Burt-Poloai
11 Brooke Ruru
12 Brooke Graham
13 Micklyn Paul
14 Phoebe McSpadden
15 Melissa Thomas
16 Marama Hindmarsh
17 TJ Martin
18 Stacy Akavi-Lomano
19 Lyric Ngapera

C Kev Thornton / PJ Leituala