Volcanix: we belong

Sapphire Tapsell crashes through the Auckland defence for her first try. Photos: Chris James.

The Bay of Plenty Volcanix didn't win any titles on Saturday with their 25-22 victory over Auckland at Tauranga Domain, but it felt almost as good for them.

The win in the relegation decider, their second over the 15 times champions in three weeks, ensured their first season up in the Premiership division of the Farah Palmer Cup won't be a one-off.

They stay in the top tier for next year, and Auckland, who have fallen on hard times finishing sixth and last in the division, go down.

Staying up means everything to the team, who have done the hard work and put together a compelling formula over the season. They put it all on the field to clear the final hurdle, and are ‘absolutely' staying where they belong, says Black Ferns star openside flanker Lesley Elder.

'Just so proud of the girls. That was an 80 minute game and the girls went through to the final whistle so oh man, what a relief and so proud.

'I definitely think we deserve to be in the Premiership. We've got a team that compete, it's exciting rugby, and I think we're only tapping on our potential.”

An early penalty to Renee Wickliffe, playing in the 10 jersey with the last minute withdrawal of regular pivot Ora Williams, turned out to be the difference between the teams, with both scoring four tries and converting one of them.

Renee Wickliffe breaks the Auckland defence before setting up Les Elder for the first Volcanix try.

The first of Elder's two tries, set up by Wickliffe who broke through the Auckland defence and spotted her Black Ferns teammate in space on the right, gave the Volcanix a deserved 8-0 halftime lead after enjoying the better of a close fought first spell with a fair breeze at their backs.

Auckland would have the better of the conditions in the second spell, and would make good use of them, but not before the home side added two more tries to their tally. Both were quality finishes by fullback Sapphire Tapsell, who showed great strength to bulldoze through the visitors' defence for the first, and then pace to break from her own 22 and make it to the line for the second.

At 18-0 down and with half an hour to save themselves from relegation Auckland finally began to flex their muscles, making use of the wind at their backs to kick for position, and the struggles of the Volcanix to clear their defensive territory when they got the chance.

Three tries over the next half hour closed it to 18-17, and with 10 minutes remaining the result was on a knife edge.

But the determination of the Volcanix, aided by a yellow card to the visitors and a change in gameplan which saw them running out of defence rather than kicking, finally saw them escape into attacking territory.

With their scrum beginning to dominate the bigger Auckland pack they got some ball they could do something with, and Elder's second try came as a result. Wickliffe added the conversion, and at 25-17 with the clock ticking down their Premiership status began to look safe. A final Auckland try came too late to change that.

Les Elder touches down for her second try.

For coach Brendon Webby it was nice to be able to breathe again.

'It feels bloody good actually. It was pretty tense in there but it's awesome. It's really just reward for the ladies, all the hard work they've put in. They deserve it.”

Having finished fifth, ahead of Auckland, there was a sense of justice prevailing for the team, Brendon says.

'Yeah there was a little bit of talk about that but we knew we were going to be in for a fifth v sixth playoff right from the start so we knew we'd have to get up for it.

'We took a little bit of confidence out of the fact that we beat them a couple of weeks ago so we knew we could. The girls were really positive about that and the message was just to play our game and just to concentrate on us and I think we did that so it was a pleasing result.

'Our Blackferns leaders really stood up and they probably more than anybody grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and finished it off so we're really happy with them.

'We had a really good halftime chat and we obviously started the second half extremely well with a couple of quick tries. (Auckland) were always going to come back and credit to our girls to hang in there and keep playing which is what we wanted.”

The Volcanix might look back with some regret on their 22-10 loss to Manawatu, who finished just five points above them in the fourth and final playoffs position. That result could easily have gone the other way, and would have meant a semifinal for them instead of a relegation dogfight.

'I think again it justifies the fact that these girls deserve to be in the Premiership,” says Brendon. 'Next year we'll prepare even better again and we know that we're semifinal contenders. And once you're in the semifinal it's anyone's game so they'll take a lot of confidence out of that and they deserve it.”

A slow start to the competition meant they didn't reach the heights they could have, says Lesley, and more games in future could be something to take on board from the season.

'We gradually built into the year and I think if we'd had a couple more games we could have done some good things up against some other teams as well.

'I think just there's some learnings around our preseason and what we do there, and maybe getting a bit of gametime as well in the preseason so that once we're hitting competition we're firing.

'The FPC's getting way more exciting. I think it's way more competitive, girls are really starting to understand how to play rugby, and the style of rugby's exciting.

'It's fast, we're playing on the edges, skill, speed, and catch-pass are all really excelling so it's good!”

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