4th in the world

Yesterday we played in one of the semi-finals against Japan. Our offence had a shaky start coughing up the disc to give Japan a 3-0 lead. Japan had been filming our games against opposition and presumably this influenced their tactics of largely giving us the under cut. Poor execution and option taking meant Japan took the half
9-4 (?). We clawed back a few points in the second half, including a 3 point run, but left it too late. Japan took the win 17-10. Ash Martens was another victim of the poor quality fields with a bad ankle injury (torn ligaments, possibly break?) in the second half.

This left us to fight off for Bronze against Canada. All the semi-finals were being played on the stadium fields and the scheduling was incredibly tight meaning our game started 1.5 hours late at 5:30pm. We started the game flat giving up another 3-0 lead, prompting yet another time-out call to regroup. We got one on the board but that was it giving Canada half at 9-1. The second half we actually came out to play and put up a fight with the final score being 17-7 (so a 6-8 second half scoreline). It was a disappointing way to end the tournament, but we still have the satisfaction of coming 4th.

We ended the day thanking everyone who had made this week a success for us:

Pat - preparing our lunches everyday, pre-chopped lunch fillings and having everything amazingly at the fields when we needed it was awesome
Mike, Mark & Dan - for assisting with the lunches and being the pack horses for the physio table and first aid kit (& Mike for being our own personal photographer)
Annette - our physio, who kept us all running all week
Granny, Bel & Keah - for organising the pre-tour
Tom - Coach, for his contribution to getting us as far as we got
Lisi - for her fitness program which got us all into shape and always being willing to answer questions
Lisi & Granny - for running the warm ups and warm downs
Diana - for 7 months of tireless work; strategically, emotionally & physically. Leading on and off the field, always positive. An amazing job.
The family and friends who supported us both at the fields and from afar!