DURING first week of the school holidays Warialda’s year 12 Women’s Rugby player Tiarna Molloy attended a final camp and underwent the selection process as part of the Australian under 18 wider squad team at the Sydney Academy of Sport. With the squad narrowed to 24 players, Tiarna made the cut for the top 18.
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Tiarna travelled to New Caledonia as the captain of Tribe in the invitational 7s squad from Brisbane to compete in the 7s International tournament during the second week in July. It was a competition her mother, Melissa Molloy, could not travel to and with no television coverage she had to follow the results via social media.
It was a great experience and it’s just going to make her a better player for the future.
- Melissa Molloy
“It’s the first time that tournament’s been on and (she) got the opportunity to see what it’s like to compete on an international scale,’ Melissa said.
“It was a great experience and it’s just going to make her a better player for the future.”
On the first day of competition the Tribe had wins over the home team of New Caledonia and then Fiji, but lost to the New Zealand side 22-21
On the second day they beat New Caledonia in the semi-final and took on New Zealand in the final.
“New Zealand actually took two teams, so they met New Zealand again,” Mellissa Malloy said.
Tribe had a strong start and were 24-0 up at half-time, but the Kiwi's then racked up 26 unanswered points that had Tribe needing to rally. They did, and with 90 seconds left on the clock an audacious chip and gather saw them score, and the 31-62 win saw Tribe bring home the tournament silverware.
Tiarna scored five tries over the two days of competition.
In the coming months Tiarna will learn if she has made the final 12 to compete at the World Series under 18s Sevens in New Zealand in December.