COACH Stu Pinkerton has set the target of developing the Newcastle University Women's rugby sevens program into the best in the country after the Students broke through for their first tournament win in Canberra on Sunday.
Teen sensation Ella Carlisle scored in golden-point extra-time to pip Bond 22-17 in the final and remain undefeated.
It was Newcastle's best result in the history of the series and propelled them into equal third with West Australia overall. Bond were the series winners, followed by Melbourne.
"Our goal was to finish top three and winning our first tournament clinched that," Pinkerton said. "It is another example of Newcastle rugby really starting to make its mark. We want to be the top program in the next couple of years."
Jesse Southwell was the star for Newcastle last year. She went on to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games.
This year was more of a squad effort.
"We have had a bit of rotation in the squad," Pinkerton said. "There has been no big stand out. That was the key to the victory in the end. We needed all 12 players to perform."
The final went to the wire.
"We went behind 17-12 with a minute to go," Pinkerton said. "Danielle Buttsworth kicked ahead and as she went to regather the ball she was dragged back. We were awarded a penalty try under the posts. That made it 17-all. The Bond player was given a yellow card which made it seven on six.We won the kickoff, maintained the ball and then got it wide to Ella Carslisle who gassed Bond's star winger and scored."
Newcastle finished sixth in the first tournament in Adelaide and were fourth on home soil.
On Saturday, they beat Canberra (19-5), Adelaide (19-12) and Melbourne (17-10) and drew 21-all with Bond. They completed the pool games on Sunday with wins over Sydney (24-0) and West Australia (19-7).
"The tie with Bond in the final pool game on Saturday gave us confidence," Pinkerton said. "West Australia had been a bit of a bogey team. They beat us quite well in the Newcastle tournament. Psychologically we needed to get over that hurdle."
Jesse Gentle is exopected to be named in the NSW Rising stars team on Monday to compete against Queensland and the Barbarians in January. Newcastle assistant coach David Sharpe is one of the coaches.
