A last-minute try to Leni Wicks gave the Gunnedah Bulldogs a thrilling 22-16 win against the Wee Waa Panthers in the Mid Season Women’s Tackle fixture at Kitchener Park last Sunday.
Following the change of venue, a number of players took part in the women’s leaguetag and rugby league fixtures with the latter producing a much tighter contest.
With the Panthers having many more interchange players in the rugby league match, the teams had 11 players on the field while the Bulldogs had just one interchange player.
After scoring four times in leaguetag, Tara Wilkinson-Ryan posted the first try in the rugby league before a try to Nautica Eather helped Gunnedah to a handy 12-0 lead.
Wee Waa’s Matilda Currey scored two tries in six minutes while one of them was unconverted which enabled Gunnedah to lead 12-10.
Dangerous Panthers fullback Cass Morley scored a converted try early in the second half to give Wee Waa a 16-12 lead, before Wilkinson-Ryan levelled the scores with another try to set up a thrilling final 15 minutes.
The Panthers were rocked in the final five minutes as Brianna Anderson was sent to the sin bin, before the Bulldogs had a try disallowed because of a forward pass.
Morley made a threatening break, but then Wee Waa lost possession and conceded a penalty to give Gunnedah another chance to regain the lead.
Leni Wicks was foiled just centimetres from the tryline, but soon afterwards she was not to be denied as she reached to ground the ball over the line in a tackle and score the match-winning try.
There was no time for play to restart after Apryl Bailey landed her third conversion from four attempts.
With four wins and one loss, the Bulldogs have a bye this weekend and will wait to see who they contest in week one of finals the following weekend.
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