Shamrocks News

Shamrocks girls win Rugby World Sevens

13 March 2009 - Australia led by two Gaelic footballers from Brisbane’s western suburbs Shamrocks club became the first ever Women's Rugby World Cup Sevens champions last week. Shelly Matcham back in Australia with the Rugby Sevens World Cup. Photo from ARU website

Shamrocks champions Tricia Brown and Shelly Matcham (pictured) starred for Australia, with Matcham scoring the winning try in sudden death extra time to clinch the dramatic 15-10 victory over New Zealand.

After the scores were locked 10-all at the end of regulation time, Matcham made the winning try when pushing out of two tackles to cross in the corner and trigger overwhelming celebrations from the Australian side.

Australia had recruited from other sports for the tournament, including Brown who won back-to-back best and fairest awards with Shamrocks in 2005-2006, Queensland and Australasian best and fairest awards, and the Gaelic Football World Cup in 2005. Matcham is also a Gaelic football Australasian All-star.

“This is so awesome,” Matcham was quoted on the ARU website. “I only came on to the field 90 seconds before the end of regulation time as a replacement. To score the winning try in extra time, it’s the sort of thing you only dream about.

“I called for the ball because I could see we had an overlap and having fresh legs I thought I could beat the defence on the outside. As it turned out, I had to step back inside, got tackled but wasn’t held and dived over.

“To be honest, I don’t even remember the referee blowing the whistle for the try. All I remember is my teammates jumping on me.”

Tricia Brown now a World Cup winner in Sevens Rugby and Gaelic Football. Photo from ARU website "I have been sitting on the bench for about three games, got my shot in the semi and the girls had so much belief in me and I just knew when I got that ball I wanted to do it for them. You dream of this," Shelly Matcham added.

Tricia Brown (pictured) was quoted on the AUR website as saying, “It’s very surreal. This is a ground-breaking moment for women’s Rugby, playing at a World Cup Sevens, and even more so for Australian women’s Rugby now that we’ve won.

“It’s such an exciting time to be involved in women’s Rugby. We spoke about at this tournament having a lot of passion, pride and belief in ourselves and that really came through in the final.

“It was heart-stopping for everyone out there. But you couldn’t have written the script better.”

In the pool games, Australia and China played the historic first game in the competition, with Australia winning 50-12, and Tricia Brown showing her class with a hat-trick of tries.

In the semi final, Australia defeated South Africa 19-10. South Africa led early, but then Tricia Brown came on as a substitute and made an immediate impact, scoring a try and a conversion to help clinch the victory and progress to the final.

2009 sign-on this weekend

9 March 2009 - Brisbane's Shamrocks Gaelic Football Club launches its 26th season with sign-on festivities for new players at the St Patrick's Irish Festival at Willawong this Sunday.

New mens and womens players are invited to join the club at Gaelic Park, Bowhill Road, Willawong, from 10:30am.

Competition starts this month and runs through to the end of August.

Shamrocks has been representing Brisbane's western and south-western suburbs for over a quarter of a century, are are defending womens Queensland League premiers.

For more information call Luke Devitt on 0438 778 520.