Australia wins the Trans Tasman after 9 very competitive games.
The Trans Tasman Series was a fantastic success for the Australian Touch Teams, and local Queenslanders played a big role in defending their titles.
The Open Mixed Team won 8-6 lost 7-8 and then won the decider 6-5. This was in extra time involving a drop- off and got down to 4 vs 4 before the Aussies scored.
With the present captain retiring, local Gold Coaster Ryan Pollock was announced as the new Captain.
The Women's won 4-1, 10-5 and then a tight 3-2 in the last game with a number of tough calls.
Gold Coast’s Teena MacIlveen received the Chairman's award for the best Australian female player.
The Men's lost 3-6 then won 10-8 and in the decider got up 7-6. They were down 4-1 at half time due to 2 full field intercepts by the Kiwis but got back to 6-6 until our Aussie captain Drumayne Dayberg-Muir (Drummy) scored with less than a minute to go.
At different stages the games were affected by the rainy weather, or typical Auckland.
In some fantastic news for Queensland and the Gold Coast, Nathan Jones was named Australian Vice-Captain, an outstanding achievement for such a likeable local player.
Gold Coast Touch is certainly leading the way with 2 Australian Captians in the Open Divisions (Drumayne Dayberg-Muir, Ryan Pollock), an Australian Vice Captain (Nathan Jones) and two Youth Squad Captains in Peter Norman and Jess Shaw.
Pictured are some of the Gold Coast contingent that travelled to NZ to win the Trans Tasman.
Photo Courtesy of the Gold Coast Bulletin, with thanks to Greg Norman for the details for this story.
