Quaama’s Jorja More and Pambula’s Tamika Millard combined with two of their Falcons team-mates from Jindabyne during the tournament alongside Youth Commonwealth Games rep Lilly Rose-Bennett from Narooma.

The girls all formed part of the strong ACT Brumbies contingent that claimed third after a semi-final loss NSW, while it was Queensland Red going on to win 26-0 over the Blues in the grand final. 

“Queensland took it out, but we played our best game against them,” Lilly beamed on Wednesday. 

“We held them out for ages and, even though we didn’t win, we were so proud of our outcome.”

The ACT squad claimed third after scoring a 14-12 result over WA in the third-place final. 

Jorja at just 15 was the youngest in the squad and as a first-time competitor said she had some pre-match nerves, but was thrilled with the experience and delighted to claim a podium finish. 

“It was a bit scary running onto the field, but once I had the first tackle and that first hold of the ball I relaxed,” Jorja said. “It was really tough competition and I wasn't expecting to go home with an award.

“Last year the team came fourth, this year we came third, so that is a really good achievement for our team.”

Tamika echoed the sentiment saying the competition was fierce, but the team came up stronger than previously. 

“The 7s experience was amazing and I was proud to be apart of it,” Tamika said. “Playing along side my Falcons teammates made it even better, the competition was hard but we were a lot better and stronger team than last year and stood up next to the top teams.”

Meanwhile, for Lilly it was a chance to play against some of the team-mates she’s gained during a gold-medal performance in the Youth Games in the Bahamas earlier this year. 

“I got the chance to play against a lot of my team-mates, which was good because I’ve only played alongside them,” Lilly said with a laugh.  But recognising their ability she said there were plenty of “skillful and speedy girls”.

The result at the nationals cements the abilities of the Falcons, who dominated their regular season draw undefeated. 

But the third-place result also cements a growing partnership between the Far South Coast and the ACT Brumbies program with Lilly and Cobargo’s Millie Boyle already having served national squads through the pathway. 

Lilly is already back on the park – competing in New Zealand as part of the Australian youth team and gearing up to tackle some of the world’s best teams. 

Wednesday she said there were a few pre-match nerves as the Aussies look to take on some big teams in the rugby world including Tonga, Samoa and New Zealand. 

She’s training twice a day and has plenty of support from her family. 

“I’m sticking in to a lot at the moment, but honestly I couldn’t do it without my dad because I hate training alone,” she said. 

Meanwhile, Tamika is showing her diversity and switching codes to focus on rugby league, where she’s training twice a week with the Canberra Raiders. 

“I’m taking away the new friendships I made along the way at the nationals,” Tamika said, “but I have the Tarsha Gale 9s Cup in rugby league with the Canberra Raiders coming up in the new year.

“I’m really looking forward to that.”

And there will be even more opportunities going into next year with Rugby Australia announcing a women’s XVs draw. 

Known as the Super W competition, the five-team competition is set to kick off in March 2018.

Australia’s five State representative teams; Queensland, NSW, ACT, Victoria, and Western Australia will compete around the country in a six-week competition which will conclude with a final in April.

The new Women’s National XVs competition, Super W, is the second national Women’s Competition to be launched this year after the successful first season of the Aon University Sevens Series that was held from August to September.

The Super W competition will provide greater opportunity for XVs players across the country, lift the standards of Rugby and re-define the pathway to the Buildcorp Wallaroos.

In a further exciting development for Women’s Rugby, Rugby Australia also today confirmed that it would bid for the 2021 Women’s Rugby World Cup, that if successful would see the 12 best Rugby nations descend on Aussie soil to fight for the global crown.

Outgoing Rugby Australia CEO, Bill Pulver said: “For a young girl picking up a Rugby ball for the first-time next season, she will now have a clear and accessible pathway to represent her country through the Buildcorp Wallaroos and Qantas Australian Women’s Sevens team.”