Round 5 of Queensland Premier Rugby will see the two new comers to the competition go head-to-head as Bond University host Easts at Robina.
Despite being the two newest teams, Bond and Easts have been the top performers within the competition over the opening four weeks.
St.George Queensland Reds Super W regular Kiri Lingman is helping form the new cohort of Women’s players at Tigerland, and has enjoyed her first few weeks in blue-and-yellow.
“It’s been a huge first few weeks, it’s exciting to be back,” Lingman said.
“Being a new team at Easts, it’s pretty amazing to see how well the club has backed us.
“The biggest take away at the moment is how competitive and even the competition has been, a lot of close games and the top teams being tested. It’s great to see the comp grow and for teams to continue to improve.”
Lingman has been part of the dominant Sunnybank side that has won the last five straight premierships, however the chance to take part in a new challenge and learn from experienced coaches and former premier grade greats James Sua and Tyrell Barker helped persuade her to make the move to Easts.
Lingman isn’t alone, with a fair number of players switching allegiances in the off-season, the result being a far more level playing field across the competition.
“Heading into game day each weekend it’s more exciting, it forces teams to kind of step up and go away to training and work on what they need to.
“There are a couple of teams at the moment who are in massive contention for that grand final sport so it’s good to see.
“James Sua is a bit of a legend, and we’ve been lucky to be coached by Tyrell previously in Super W and with Wallaroos PONI squads and that was probably a major attraction in coming to Easts, the quality of coaching and what we could potentially learn from them. I know both the experienced girls as well as the newcomers are getting a lot out of the program.”
Bond are in a similar scenario, with fellow Super W assistant coach Setu Naseri involved in the program which has attracted notable recruits including Emily Bass, Aleana Greenhalgh and Maddison Shuck, all of whom have transitioned from Bond’s Sevens program.
With both clubs setting the standard in the women’s competition across the opening rounds, Lingman is looking forward to Saturday’s clash.
“I’m pretty excited, looking at our two teams we have opposite styles of play, so it will be interesting to see what happens. That’s what you want out of club Rugby, you want it to be competitive and close and credit to Bond, they’ve put in a lot of work to be as competitive in XVs as they are in Sevens.”
