Nova claim women’s title

The National Sports

NOVA bagged their maiden premiership with a 27- 22 win over Harlequins in the Capital Rugby Union grand final at Bava Park on Saturday.
Having claimed the minor title with a first place finish. Nova continued their dream season with a hard-fought win over a game Harlequins side in front of a good crowd at oval one.
The game was in the balance in the final quarter with the scores locked at 22-22 with a surprisingly competitive Harlies outfit pushing the favourites all the way.
With less than a minute to go Nova got deep into the Harlies half and piled on the pressure with consecutive rucks before Gwen Pokana ended the stalemate with the match winning try.
Nova’s tries were scored by Fatima Rama, Chermelle Apera, Angie Prua and Pokana while Prua kicked one conversion.
For Harlies Marie Biyama scored a brace while Kelly Peter and Cathy Puro crossed the line  with Puro landing one conversion.
Nova led 17-10 and looked to power on but Harlequins made things interesting with two tries forcing Nova to dig deep to level the match and then a last-gasp winner at the stroke of full time.
Nova captain Lorraine Pomat attributed the win to her side’s sheer determination and defence especially in the final 10 minutes of the game.
Where Nova had to hold out  a surging Harlies and then find the energy to comeback. For the champions, Lynette Kwarula, Fatima Rama, Naomi Alopia and Jane Buku were outstanding. “I’m happy with the performanceand it’s all excitement with the our maiden premiership.
This is just the beginning of better things to come in future,” Pomat said.
A tight opening 40 minutes saw both sides creating opportunities, but were let down by handling errors and poor decision making, this saw the sides settle to a halftime score  of 17-10 in favour of Nova. Harlies, who were the underdogs earned the right to be in the grand final after winning their final two matches.
Notable players for Harlequins who contributed to their finals run included captain Marie Biyama, Talesanga Bagita, Cathy Puro, Cassandra Sampson and Patricia Korpok.