Lisa Fiaola & Tarsha Sharks fall short in round one

While they were competitive in their matches against the Penrith Panthers, both the Lisa Fiaola Cup and Tarsha Gale Cup Sharks women’s teams fell short in suffering round one losses.

In matches played at the HE Laybutt Field in Blacktown, the Lisa Fiaola Sharks trailed 14-0 at half time, and 22-0 at one point of the second half, before eventually going down by 26-10.

In the Tarsha Gale under-19’s match that would follow, the young Sharks women had every chance, leading the Panthers by six points during the second half, before slipping to an 18-10 defeat.

Despite giving away considerable size to their Penrith opponents the Lisa Fiaola Sharks tried hard to stay in touch, however in conceding three first half tries would trail 14-0 at the half time break.

While Penrith would put the result beyond doubt with two more four-pointers after half time, in a display of their courage and attitude the Sharks refused to roll over, with a 47th minute try to Tahli Weigand and another from Julliana Kolio 60 seconds from full time bringing some respectability to the final scoreline.

In the Tarsha Gale clash the two teams went to half time locked at four points apiece, Arianna Ruwoldt touching down for the Cronulla team.

The second period began well for the Sharks, with Kirrawahn Duckett crossing in the early moments, Brooklyn Allan Kingi adding the extra two points and at 10-4 the Sharks had the ascendency.

From that point however the home team would make the Sharks pay for their errors and defensive lapses, with a hat trick of tries to Panther Madison Wilson securing the two competition points for her team.

The two Sharks women’s teams host the Manly Sea Eagles in round two matches to be played at the Sharks Academy Field next Saturday.