The NSWPRU defeated the WA Police Wasps 18-11 in a thrilling last minute victory to win the Australian Police Rugby Championship at Kawana last Friday.
It was a magnificent team victory that was hard fought to the last minutes, when we were up 11-8 WA scored near the posts and converted to take a 15-11 lead. We on the sideline thought all was lost, but fortunately the team never gave up, and took a short kick right which was cleverly retained and kept infield to be passed quickly to the left wing and a rampant Adam Clift who ran 55 metres to score and after being converted in a massive kick from Dave Potter took us to a final score of 18-15. The ground erupted and victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat.
The player of the match was Adam Clift and the NSWPRU tournament best and fairest was Steve McNamara.
Much celebrating ensued, highlighted by a congratulatory call from the Commissioner. And to top it off we dominated the selections for the Australian Police Rugby team.
So, 6 months of strategic hard work culminated with a great win by a great team. The team were disciplined and conducted themselves professionally at all times, always mindful of their role as representatives of the NSW Police Force.
Special thanks go to super coach Ian "Speed" Kennedy whose discipline and crafty man management kept our intensity and focus up. Speed was given great respect wherever we went, espeicllay from Wallabies Glenn Panaho and Toutai Kefu who run the grounds where we trained.
We would have struggled without the support of the back up team:-
Paul Madirazza
Paula Scott - our magic sports therapist who kept the players in great shape.
Glen Chalker
Brian "Holby" Holborow
Glen "Bus Driver" Marks
We even had great physio support from Wallaby prop and physio Cameron Lillicrap, whose expert hands and elbows brought tears to the eyes of some of our tough guys, but fixed them right up.
and in preparation the committee:
Mick Cantrell
Matt Munro, also captained us to victory
Ian Lynch
Steve Egginton
Paul Scott
Matt Redward
Mick Nibbs
and the accommodation fixer extraordinaire (we had the best hotel of anyone at the Championships for less than some teams paid for Backpackers!)
Vince Hole.
Special thanks to our sponsors
Taser
Police Credit Union
Maxxia
Storage King
Police Association
without whose support we wouldn't have been so well prepared, equipped or accommodated.
We are having the trophy engraved and it will be on display at PHQ in the next week or so.
Cut and paste this link into your browser to have a look at a news story.
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2010/04/28/champs-ready-for-the-big-test/
The next championships are in Perth in 2012 which we plan to attend and defend our title. The next major events for us are the Golden Oldies in September and the Central Coast 7s in October.
Thanks for all the messages of support and congratulations over the weekend. We are immensely proud to have won the Championship on your behalf.
p.s we have the Hoodies for sale as well as ties, lapel pins, plaques and other odds and sods. We will also be doing another jumper order. We'll be taking orders this week.
Yours in Rugby
