North have clinched the inaugural Pomare Shield with a 26-12
\ntriumph over South in Saturday afternoon\u2019s series decider in fine but windy
\nconditions at Wanneroo Rugby Union Club.<\/p>\n
North ultimately prevailed after their fast start, scoring three
\ntries in the opening 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
South rallied with two tries before half-time from Kalamunda
\nhooker Hera-Barb Malcolm Heke, but North shut down the game in the second half
\nwith Alapeta Ngauamo scoring the only try of the back 40.<\/p>\n
The result clinched North a 2-1 triumph in the inaugural
\nNorth vs South Women\u2019s Series, with the winners presented with the newly minted
\nPomare Shield after the game.<\/p>\n
Trilleen Pomare, whom the trophy was named after, was among
\nthe triumphant North line-up, coming off the bench in the second half.<\/p>\n
Co-captains Alapeta Ngauamo and Ngamihi Monk took the
\nhonours of lifting the shield to celebrate their triumph and cap a successful series,
\naimed at developing the WA women\u2019s rugby pathway.<\/p>\n
North, kicking into the wind in the first half, flew out of
\nthe blocks with Tizanae Kovacs almost scoring following a line break in the
\nright corner.<\/p>\n
Minutes later, her Wests Scarborough teammate Brooklyn Teki
\nJoyce burst through the middle with her scintillating pace to open the scoring.
\nWanneroo\u2019s teenage scrum-half Kylah-Reh Tuheke Kupa converted.<\/p>\n
In the 14th minute, Wests fly-half Talitha Heta
\nfound a gap, with her run allowing North to spread play left for Halley Derera
\nto score. Tuheke Kupa converted again for a 14-0 lead.<\/p>\n
The fast-scoring start continued when Heta\u2019s brilliant
\nbouncing kick released Ngamihi Monk, before Teki Joyce combined with Kovacs who
\nfound a way to score. There was some doubt, with Kovacs initially appearing to
\nknock on, but the referee deemed the ball hit her foot not hand.<\/p>\n
South rallied after North dominated all the early territory,
\nwith Malcolm Heke coming within a whisker of the try line.<\/p>\n
The Force hooker would score on the back of a rolling maul
\njust before the half hour mark. She made it a double, forcing her way over with
\nWallaroos scrum-half Sammy Wood converting to make it 19-12 at half-time.<\/p>\n
North got the all-important first points of the second half,
\nwith tireless front-rower Alapeta Ngauamo diving over after a pick and go.<\/p>\n
Moments later, Tuheke Kupa almost created another with a
\nfeign leading to a line break, only to lose the ball to South\u2019s retreating
\ndefence.<\/p>\n
South huffed and puffed but couldn\u2019t manufacture any worthwhile
\nopportunities, while North back-rower Taylor Waterson\u2019s line break down the
\nother end almost set up Zion Taurima only for a last-ditch South tackle to deny
\nhim.<\/p>\n
But North ultimately couldn\u2019t be denied, clinching a 2-1
\ncome-from-behind series triumph, becoming the maiden Pomare Shield winners.<\/p>\n
North 26<\/p>\n
Tries: Teki Joyce (9\u2019), Derera (14\u2019), Kovacs (17\u2019), Ngauamo
\n(44\u2019)<\/p>\n
Conversions: Tuheke Kupa 3\/4<\/p>\n
South 12<\/p>\n
Tries: Malcolm Heke 2x (27\u2019, 32\u2019)<\/p>\n
Conversions: Wood 1\/2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North have clinched the inaugural Pomare Shield with a 26-12 triumph over South in Saturday afternoon\u2019s series decider…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85,11229],"class_list":{"0":"post-255050","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-western-force"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}