The women’s Mako season is still alive after getting the better of North Harbour during their quarter-final in Auckland at the weekend.
The Mako women underlined their improvement this campaign by getting up for a 25-19 win against a side they had lost to earlier in the round-robin series.
Midfielder Jess Drummond says the result was indicative of inconsistent performances.
“It’s been an up and down season for us. With most of our games being unfortunate losses that we could’ve had in the bag.”
She says it was a satisfying way to avenge the loss to the side from earlier in the season.
“We have progressed rapidly each week as shown by our recent win in the quarter-final”
Jess believes they now have every chance of progressing to a maiden final.
“We have a young side and it’s been amazing to see the girls grow and learn. We also have some really experienced girls who have stepped up on the park and led by example.”
She says the bond in the side is strengthening week to week.
“Our culture this year is the best yet and that has helped us with our successes, our backline sticks like glue and we have a lot of faith and trust in each other to make individual tackles and back ourselves on attack.”
The Mako face a tall task of reaching the final though as they come up against a side which drubbed them 58-15 earlier in the season.
“It’s a big game this weekend against Otago down there, the last time we played them it was tough, but we have come a long way and believe we have what to takes to make it to that next final.”
Coach Chris Binns says there were “a few hair-raising moments” during the quarter against Harbour.
However, he says the side had travelled north confident they could get the job done.
“After week one North Harbour were never a team that was going to scare us too much, we felt we had let ourselves down a wee bit when we played them in Blenheim.”
Binns says that despite the lop-sided scoreline last time they met he was happy to be heading to Dunedin.
“If we can bring some of the physicality we had today, then anything is possible, especially in a semi-final. Pressure does funny things to teams.”
Tasman 25 (Bethan Manners, Sydnee Wilkins, Rebecca Kersten tries, Hayley Hutana 2 pen, 2 con) North Harbour 19. HT: 12-10 Harbour.
