Two clubs, one team - that’s the ethos driving Uni-Queens to a historic TRU women’s title.
This year’s seismic shift from women’s sevens to fifteen-a-side competition presented a unique opportunity for traditional rivals Hobart Harlequins and University to join forces in 2024.
Five months and nine competition games later, the merged Uni-Queens are primed for silverware in Saturday’s grand final clash with Taroona.
“They’ve come together really well through this season and it’s been quite smooth,” team manager Kath O’Donnell said.
“When fifteens was first announced, a few girls were reticent but they’ve really got the fifteens bug now and the off-field bonding has been great between Uni and Quins.
“We’ve got two coaches in George Dawai and Chris Mahina who’ve come across and done great work, we’ve trained between both grounds and swapped between jerseys too.
“We’ve got a captain from Uni, a vice captain from Quins and we’ve even got our own team song.”
Uni-Queens enter Saturday’s decider as underdogs following two earlier losses to Taroona and a nervous 21-20 semi final win against Glenorchy but O’Donell and captain Em Pregnell have high hopes for their side.
“It would be amazing to have two clubs who recently celebrated 90 year anniversaries coming together and taking that inaugural premiership,” Pregnell said.
“The girls are primed and we’re ready for the challenge ahead.”
“We’re an old-style fifteens team, a hard slog, hit-it-up kind of team and Taroona are more of that sevens hybrid model for us it’ll be about shutting down their wide runners and bringing the physicality," added O'Donnell.
"We also want to be scoring close to the posts and kicking our conversions - we saw how important that was for us against Glenorchy so hopefully we can do that again on Saturday."
The women's grand final kicks off at 1340 (1:40pm) on Field 1 at Rugby Park.
