NELSON Bay Gropers women\u2019s rugby team have been crowned Crescent Head Rugby Sevens champions for a fifth consecutive time.<\/p>\n
In a perfect tune up for the 2026 Hunter Suburban Rugby Women\u2019s series, the enterprising Gropers toppled Hamilton Hawks 17-10 in the tournament final to preserve their imposing Sevens record at the famous surf haven.<\/p>\n
The Nelson Bay club assembled a talented squad of seasoned campaigners and rugby rookies for the annual Sevens event at Ian Walton Rugby Park at Crescent Head \u2013 with running rugby the order of the day.<\/p>\n
Dynamic centre Jessica Gentle proved the architect with slick performances to finish the tournament\u2019s leading try scorer.<\/p>\n
An outstanding all round athlete, Gentle is a former Australian Schoolgirls soccer representative and Pierre De Coubertin Award recipient who also plays rugby league for the Canberra Raiders in the NRLW competition.<\/p>\n
The former Coffs Harbour native was best on ground in the Sevens final along with classy playmaker Tash Harris and dashing fullback Emjay Walters.<\/p>\n
Nelson Bay\u2019s Sevens-winning squad also featured Sophie Simpson, Chloe Zdebski, Jessica Love, Jessica Beam, Emily Harmon, Emma Maher, Kristy Cooper, Kiara Shelton and Brieanne Napoli.<\/p>\n
The team prepared well for the event with Nelson Bay Rugby Coaching Director Rhys Cutbush fine tuning the team\u2019s fitness and structure.<\/p>\n
With Rhys unable to attend on the day, former Groper Blake Simpson stepped up as coach and did an excellent job organising the squad.<\/p>\n
Nelson Bay didn\u2019t concede a point en route to the Grand Final \u2013 registering victories over Coffs Harbour SCU Marionettes (35-0), Cooks Hill Brown Snakes (26-0) and Wauchope Thunder (48-0) in a quarter final before advancing to the trophy decider with a 19-0 semi final triumph over rivals Coffs Harbour Snappers.<\/p>\n
Tackling tyro Sophie Simpson \u2013 who starred with Walters for the Stockton Sharks women\u2019s rugby league team last season \u2013 praised the efforts of the entire Gropers squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile our backs proved unstoppable throughout the tournament the trophy win was made possible due to a tremendous defensive effort from the middle forwards,\u201d a proud Simpson told News Of The Area.<\/p>\n
Zdebski won the best forward roll award after leaning on a chair and breaking it and tumbling over after receiving a yellow card in the semi final.<\/p>\n
Rugby League convert Emma Maher debuted in her first game of rugby and celebrated by scoring a try.<\/p>\n
The Gropers women will now focus on their next challenge \u2013 the Port Macquarie Pirates Tens tournament on Saturday 14 March at Stuart Park, Port Macquarie.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile the Nelson Bay Men\u2019s squad are training Tuesday and Thursday nights at Bill Strong Oval in preparation for their upcoming home trial match against Manly Savers.<\/p>\n
Thursday night training also includes the Under 18s squad which is an essential element of the Pathways transition from junior to senior rugby and continues the trend from previous seasons.<\/p>\n
By Chris KARAS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NELSON Bay Gropers women\u2019s rugby team have been crowned Crescent Head Rugby Sevens champions for a fifth consecutive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-499583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499583","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=499583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}