Saavanah Bourke – Tweed Seagulls Reporter
The opening round of the Women’s Holcim Australia Cup kept the Gold Coast Airport Seagulls on their toes at West Mitchelton RFLC yesterday afternoon.
The new innovative six rounds of competition will see five teams play two 30-minute halves each weekend.
Unforced errors resulting in lack of possession saw the Gulls first competitors Easts Tigers quickly put points on the board.
But it was Seagulls winger Riley Hodgson who put the girls back in the game, crossing over the line just before full time.
The Gulls gritty defence reflected in the 4-8 fulltime score, but captain Brittany Faulkner said by the time the girls found their groove, it was too little too late.
“As we got our role on we only had a couple of minutes left, so it was hard for us to squash everything in.”
Ahead of taking the field for their second game against the Burleigh Bears, the skipper said the plan of attack was to go hard from the “get go”.
While the Gulls held their own against one of the competition favourites, unforced errors continued and the Bears secured the victory 20-0.
Despite going down for a second time, Australian Nines representative and co-captain Tarryn Aiken said the loss came with plenty of positives.
“We had lots of enthusiasm which was good. When we held the ball and had good field position we looked really threatening.”
Coach Mike Castle said while there was plenty of moments he was happy with, there is still work that needs to be done.
“It’s always hard to know without trials and coming off the back of a long break (how you compare to other sides) so to be able to get onto the field and have a look at what we need to work on is really positive.”
The Seagulls will go head-to-head against the West Brisbane Panthers and shape up against the Easts Tigers again in next week’s competition at Albert Bishop Park on Saturday afternoon.
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