Mount Austin-Kooringal put on big win over Mater Dei in union

Coach David Capp said the side has come far since their first game three weeks ago, with the team bonding well to earn their 27-5 win.

"Our training sessions have been happening during our school sport time, so it's been hard for us to actually really get that cohesion without having training sessions with the Kooringal High girls and the Mount Austin girls all together outside of game days, but everyone's just kind of come together at the game day and it's been really good to see them all bond," Capp said.

"Obviously they come from different schools so the girls from Kooringal probably weren't too sure what they were going to be expected to do, just being thrown into the deep end with a bunch of other girls from another school that they actually didn't really know, but I've been watching them after the game and they've all just been talking and hanging around together still, so I'm sure they've made some friends out of it all."

MORE LOCAL SPORT NEWS

A solid team effort, Capp said Kaelani Goolagong and Tayla Kaye-Mahon were absolutely the standouts for the game.

"One of our girls in particular, Tayla Kaye-Mahon, she has quite a bit of pace and she's pretty difficult to stop if she finds a little bit of space," he said.

"Kaelani Goolagong, she's been very solid the entire competition, she's a very strong ball runner, very strong in defence, and she tends to break the line every time she actually takes a run, so she was a standout and the referee notice that she was a major standout as well."

A rather inexperienced side, Capp said the players have done well for a group who had minimal time on a rugby field prior to this competition.

As the weeks wear on, they've started to pick up some of the nuances of the game.

"I think there has been improvement in all of the side, but particularly with our girls, it's just a lot of those, those basic things like contesting at the breakdown and taking away the space from the opposition, not going back further than you have to to get on side like you would in rugby league or tough or league tag, the experience is helping break some of those habits that you get from some of those other similar sports," Capp said.

"They're starting to play much more rugby, they're definitely working much better as a union team than they were at the start."

Playing Mater Dei once again next week in the third place playoff, Capp said the group has taken a lot of confidence from the game ahead of the final match.

In the other girls game Wagga High and Kildare Catholic College had a 10-10 draw.

Across in the boys competition Mater Dei defeated Wagga High 19-7 and Kildare defeated Kooringal High 38-5.

Wagga schools rugby union finals

Girls final: Kildare Catholic College v Wagga High School

Girls third place playoff: Mount Austin-Kooringal High v Mater Dei Catholic College

Boys final: Kildare Catholic College v Kooringal High School

Boys third place playoff: Mater Dei Catholic College v Wagga High

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: