Campbelltown Harlequins rugby club will have men’s first grade and the women’s team playing finals this year. ANDREW CHOICE reports.
The men’s side secured a semi final spot after a scrappy win in the Southern Highlands, defeating Bowral 37-26.
At Concord Oval, the women’s Harlequins side recorded a gritty 17-13 win over West Harbour 17 -13 to finish at the top of the ladder in tier two of the Sydney Division 1 competition.
Harlequins W will return to Concord Oval this Saturday to again take on West Harbour in the major semi final.
It will be an early morning game, with kick off scheduled at 10.30am. The return of Wallaroos Sally Fuesaina and Artasi Latu will mean the Quinnies go into the game as favourites.
The men’s reserve grade needed to win against Bowral to keep their hopes of finals football alive, but it wasn’t to be, with Harlequins going down 31-7 to the competition leaders.
First grade found themselves down 7-0 after only two minutes and had to fight hard to get back into the game.
A penalty goal and a try in the 25th minute got the Harlequins in the lead for the first time in the game, 11-7.
Campbelltown’s forwards started to get on top from there and the slick Harlequins back line scored another two tries to lead 25 points to 7 at half time.
The second half started in the same vein as the first with an intercept try to Bowral pulling the score line back to 25 – 14.
Cheap penalties and a yellow card to Campbelltown enabled the spirited home side to stay in the game.
However, Harlequins always had the game in control before running out winners 37-26.
Norwin Latu was outstanding, scoring three tries for Campbelltown, all in the first half, while in the forwards Adam Powell worked tirelessly.
On Sunday Harlequins hosted the final round of the Illawarra and Sydney Junior competitions at Campbelltown Showground.
It was a festival of rugby with 12 games across all age groups. Harlequins under 12s, 13s and 16s sides qualified for semi finals next weekend.
And finally, in what has been a busy fortnight for the Harlequins, they hosted All Blacks legend and current Moana Pasifica coach Tana Umaga, at Campbelltown Showground, pictured above. Umaga did some training drills with junior players and coaches and attended a function in the clubhouse afterwards.
