Western Women's Rugby League: Woodbridge defeat Orange Vipers 32-26 in 17s grand final

Like all teams throughout the competition, they'd been ravaged by COVID as the pandemic reared its ugly head on the eve of the grand final.

"We had two players pull out the day before, one with COVID and one injured," Woodbridge coach Gary Hewen said.

"Four young girls from 15s had to go on for us."

But the late outs weren't enough to bring the Woodbridge girls down as they faced Orange Vipers at Bathurst.

After getting away to an early lead, more adversity came the way of Woodbridge in the form of injuries.

"We got away to a good lead then Taylor Keppie did her knee and another girl got concussed," Hewen said.

"Taylor was controlling the ball around the ruck and she's a very good defender so when she got hurt it took a lot of the sting out of our defence and they scored a couple of tries.

"With about eight minutes to go we scored to make it 32-26."

Then, the Viper attack surged but the determination and resilience of Hewen's side kept them in the game.

"In the last 8 minutes they mainly attacked and we defended really well - they dropped the ball a couple of times after good defence," he recalled.

"We got a scrum feed with about 50 seconds to go, I told them just to run but they passed and kicked ahead and it landed in the in goal and I thought oh my god they'll run 100 metres but they kicked it dead and the buzzer went.

"They were over the moon (after full-time), jumping up and down.

"A lot of girls there had never played in a grand final and I tried to explain before they got out there that this might be your one and only chance so don't let it slip."

Hewen said his side's defensive steel made for a very happy coach.

"We controlled the first half pretty well until we had injuries and that last quarter they were on top, they scored a couple of quick tries and put us under pressure but we had a good enough defence to hold them out," he explained.

"I was really proud, especially when it's a new team from what I've coached for years so there's a few girls new to defending.

"I said to them on the day just get in front of them, if they run over the top of you then so be it, slow them down so other girls can help out."

Sunday also saw half-back Jorja Simpson awarded Most Valuable Player with the coach delighted by her performance amongst others.

"She played really well and directed our play around," he said.

"Our fullback Elizabeth McGregor wouldn't have been far behind her, Taylor Keppie was very strong and Beth Loco, our prop, played really well. Lock Abbey Slattery was outstanding in defence too, she saved a lot of tries."

Hewen also paid tribute to his girls commitment to the side and competition with players featuring in his team from Canberra, Condobolin, Young, Boorowa, Cowra, Parkes and Forbes with training split between the latter and Grenfell.

"My girls were very dedicated, they travelled a long way for training," he said.

"It was very rare we didn't have 12 players at training most nights. That's four premierships in a row for Woodbridge in that 16s to 17s age group - we've got good players coming through."

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