Women's rugby: Let the knockout games begin

Rotoiti and Whakarewarewa face a do-or-die situation in the Baywide Women's Premier competition this weekend. Photo/File

It would be nice to be a Rangataua or Rangiuru women's rugby fan this weekend.

They finished the Baywide Premier Women's round robin in first and second place respectively, securing home semifinals. Now they wait patiently to find out who they will play next week.

Tomorrowis D-Day for the teams who finished third, fourth, fifth and sixth as they battle it out for the last two semifinal spots.

Whakarewarewa (third) host Rotoiti (sixth) and the winner will play Rangiuru in the semifinals. Waikite (fourth) host Waimana (fifth) and the winner will play Rangataua. For the losers it is season over.

Whakarewarewa coach Ron James said his players were excited to be playing in the quarterfinals and proud of how far they had come this season.

"Against Rotoiti I want to see the team improve on our structure and control. We also want to really get our set piece humming, that's going to be the big one if we do progress through to the semifinals. Rangiuru and Rangataua will be quite hard and if we go through we want to have some momentum."

Last time Whakarewarewa played Rotoiti they came away with a 33-10 victory and James expected his side to be even stronger this time around.

"We've got a few girls playing on Sunday who weren't there last time we played Rotoiti, so I think we'll be a little bit stronger in that aspect. I think the big thing we learned last time was how to shift the ball. We've got natural, big, strong ball carriers and they're starting to realise where the space is now.

"We've continued training through the bye week and the week off we had as well, we're looking pretty good. The players need to realise this is a final and we need to pay Rotoiti their dues – they're not just coming here to make up the numbers," he said.

Rotoiti captain Polly Playle said her team would be focused on mental and physical preparation this weekend.

"To go out there and mainly concentrate on our structures. We have changed up our positions a little bit, to offer a bit more go-forward in the backs.

"We have been doing a quite a bit of mental preparation before the game, trying to keep the same preparation going through for each game. At the start we didn't do that, we didn't really concentrate at all on our preparation going into the game."

Rotoiti are looking to make the most of their opportunity to play knockout rugby.

"We are all really excited to just see how far each of us have come since we first started. We didn't really think we were going to be in this position at the start of the season.

"It is cool to come out and battle against a local club, especially it being Whakarewarewa. Our team are super excited and stoked to be in the position we are in. We will hopefully do the best we can, stick to our game plan and game structures and see how far that takes us. I know we will do well, but it just depends on how well we can keep it up through the whole 80 minutes," Playle said.

Baywide Premier Women's Quarter Final Draw
Sunday
(Kickoff 1pm)
Whakarewarewa v Rotoiti at Puarenga Park
Waikite v Waimana at Bellvue Rd