Author: Annmarie Collins

Half aussie, half kiwi who was raised in Melbourne so what do I know about rugby? Not a lot but love playing the game and can pretend I know what I'm talking about with the best of them.

The Wallaroos were outclassed by an impressive and complete performance by the Black Ferns on the weekend. The first test between the 2 teams on Saturday afternoon in Perth was an amazing show of experience and class by the New Zealanders and a game the Wallaroos will remember as disappointing. The 47-10 score line told the story with the Black Ferns finding all sorts of ways to score tries. The first a rolling maul off a line out, 2 tries by going out wide, a couple through gaps in the middle, a cross field kick, a pick and go and…

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Okay, first things first, it’s not the ‘Bledisloe W’ or the ‘Ladies Bledisloe’. The two test match series between the Australian Wallaroos and the New Zealand Black Ferns is for the Laurie O’Reilly Memorial Trophy. The trophy named after O’Reilly, a New Zealand rugby player who was instrumental in bringing women’s rugby into the light. The first test will be played this Saturday; game one in the double header with the Bledisloe at Perth’s Optus Stadium. This is the 2nd year the Wallaroos and Black Ferns have played the 2 match series as double headers and the teams will both…

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Tomorrow marks the first test of the year for the Wallaroos. They play Japan in the first of a 2 match test series. The first game is in Newcastle, where the squad has been preparing all week, and the second in Sydney next weekend. This series is part of the plan that Wallaroos coach Dwayne Nestor has developed to ensure the team play more test matches. Nestor is into his second year as Wallaroos coach and when asked by Rugby Australia what he wanted it was more test matches. Last year the team played the 2 game Laurie O’Reilly Memorial Trophy…

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SPOILER ALERT: Game of Thrones reference ahead! In the latest episode of GOT everyone’s favourite female badass Arya Stark uttered the words I’ve been thinking for 38 years; “I’m not a lady, I never have been, that’s not me”. It got me thinking about the change I have seen in women’s rugby and the place of women in rugby clubs and the rugby community in the last 12 years. How we’ve evolved from “ladies bring a plate” to simply women who play rugby and should be considered like any other player on the books. Women have always been involved in…

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