Leeton has claimed their third consecutive Southern Inland women’s sevens premiership, downing the highly fancied CSU 32-27 in an overtime thriller at Leeton No.1 Oval on Saturday.
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Hometown hero Bec Vaughan starred and was named best player for her efforts, consistently wreaking havoc with the ball in her hands and scoring three blistering tries.
While Vaughan laid a solid foundation for her team, it was speedy teammate Ua Ravu who finished the job.
Ravu handed her team the lead when she tore down the right wing to score at the end of the first-half of extra time.
When CSU’s Claudia Obst found the gap to tie the score in the final three minutes of the day, Ravu instantly ran in a late game-winner amid sheer pandemonium in the stands.
Vaughan later labeled the victory the most satisfying she had ever been apart of.
“It’s just the best feeling, even better than last year,” she said.
“CSU smashed us a couple of weeks ago, so it was great to steal it.
“They’re such a great side that we were hoping they’d get lost on the way to Leeton.”
The Dianas star said it was not only the sweetest game of her career, but also the toughest.
“That’s the hardest game I’ve ever played in and an extra six minutes definitely adds to that,” she said.
“When it went to extra time, I didn’t think I had another six minutes in me.”
Despite the Dianas winning the last two premierships, it was CSU who entered this year’s decider as hot favourites and they were playing like it when they jumped out to an early lead.
The Reddies drew first blood though a try to Ivy Merlehan, and for moment, looked likely to stamp their authority against Leeton, just as they had on two occasions during the regular season.
But the women in purple had other ideas, Cessy Smith quickly hitting back with a try of her own in the left corner.
Vaughan backed that up with her first blinding run and score of the day.
But the Reddies responded with three consecutive tries, headlined by stunning efforts from Sophie Quirk and Emma Robertson, to take a commanding lead late in regulation.
But Vaughan was just getting warmed up and scored a further two tries, the latter a scintillating run the full length of the field, to force extra time with scores locked at 22-22.
Enter Leeton livewire Ua Ravu, who found a gap and broke free along the right wing midway through extra time.
CSU’s Claudia Obst was having none of it and equalised shortly after the final three minutes of play began.
But Saturday was Ravu’s day, sprinting into space and scoring the winner the moment she got her hands back on the ball.