Harden Hawkette Georgia Smith has returned from the Oz Tag World Cup with a bronze medal for her efforts after her side the New Zealand Exiles put in a stellar performance.
The Harden product flew to the Emerald Isle with her father Oscar and her side performed admirably in their pool matches, narrowly missing out on higher honours. Georgia was based at the University in Limerick with her team and they played seven games across the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of the competition, with the side winning five matches across the gruelling three days.
The team had limited preparation and had to use the first two games to work on their combinations and team work and this time provided dividends with them winning those first two games.
Georgia said, “We had a 40 minute training run the day before we started, we worked out our roles. Our first loss came against Australia. As we progressed through each game we got better and better and we finished off in third spot.”
“We played in the semi-final match to go into the gold medal match. We went down to Great Britain. They scored in the first few minutes and then it was defence for the rest of the game. They went on to play Australia in the gold medal match.”
The loss meant Georgia’s side played Ireland for the bronze. They finished with a one-all draw and this meant that the team’s dropped down to five players each. Georgia was lucky to be one of the players from the normal starting side of eight to stay on the pitch.
She said, “I was fortunate enough to be one of five to stay on. We went on and held on for three sets of defence, we had to score first, which we did, otherwise, at the end of extra time, Ireland would have won because they scored first in regular time.”
Georgia found the exposure to the New Zealand culture as invaluable and eye opening and was amazed at how well all the teams got on. The meaning behind the Haka and how important it is was not lost on her.
She said, “I only knew these girls for 24 hours and everyone was family. I got over there and hadn’t learnt a thing but I had so much support and I knew how important it was to them. If it came down to being selected as a non-heritage player again, that would be great.”
The Hawkettes suffered their first loss in a competition round of league tag while she was away overseas, highlighting her importance to the side, which she commenced playing as a foundation member some 8 years ago as a teenager. A Hawkette through and through, she watched the livestream of the match while in London at 4am and found it hard to watch the loss to Coota.
She said, “We still have lots to work on as we go into the finals, a bit of energy has gone down after that loss.”
Georgia will prove invaluable for Harden as she has been the top try scorer for the last 5 years in the competition and is currently on 33 tries in the regular season. The 27 year old is at the peak of her powers and will need to be contained if opposition sides are to have any chance.
She is fully committed to the side. She works in Canberra and lives in Harden ensuring that she doesn’t miss training and also gets her ‘extras’ done in the gym where she conditions her body for the rigours of the sport She’s a little like a Michael Jordan of the league tag world, she is relentless and just keeps asking questions of the opposition defence and provides scintillating attacking strategies and moves, often backed up by her sisters Grace and Clare. She said that both she and twin sister Clare have Nationals towards the end of the year and that she is also studying for her Bachelor in Early Childhood which she will finish in February.
It is a tight schedule for her but she loves keeping fit and playing sport. Look out fans of the Harden Hawkettes and the Hawks club as a whole. After a quick break and getting her body clock back in order Georgia will be ready to strike for her beloved maroon and whites in the finals.
