Despite losing to New Zealand in the final of the Langford leg, the women’s team had enough points to end the season in the number one ranking.

Wagga’s Alicia Quirk was forced to watch on from home, after being ruled out for the final leg, but was thrilled the team did enough to cement their place at the top of the rankings.

“It is really exciting that the girls have been able to finish off the season like that,” Quirk said.

“It was an absolutely brutal tournament in Paris in terms of the physicality and the close games we had to win, but we knew we had to beat France to get through to the final to secure our place.

“The girls did that immensely well.”

The team couldn’t cap off the World Series result with a win in the final, falling to New Zealand 33-7.

Quirk said it was disappointing not to come away with another leg, but thought it would be a good building block for the younger side.

Both she and Batlow’s Sharni Williams were forced out of the side.

Despite a knee complaint, Quirk was close to heading over to France before a death in the family.

Now she’s looking to concentrate of the World Cup campaign with just six weeks until the event in San Francisco.

“I’m back running, back rehabing and when the team returns to Australia for training next week I’ll be fully firing and ready to go,” Quirk said.