Seigia Seukeni, Megan Lonsdale, Fay Saula and Sophia Kelsey are all smiles after making the ACT Brumbies Country squad. Photo: Oliver Jacques.
Four players from the Griffith Blacks rugby club have been selected for the ACT Brumbies Country women’s squad – one of Australia’s leading provincial clubs.
Front-rowers Seigia Seukeni, 30, and Fay Saula, 25, halfback Sophia Kelsey, 19, and winger Megan Lonsdale, 17, were all phoned recently to let them know they’d been selected after excelling in a representative match for Southern Inland, which is made up of the best players in the Riverina-Murray region.
“I was surprised to be selected,” Seukeni said. “We now play our first game for the ACT Brumbies Country team on 14 September, against a city squad. After that, they choose a team selecting the best players from that match for a squad that plays in the Australian championship in Brisbane.”
Southern Inland won the representative trial match against Monaro 48-15 in June. Lonsdale scored two tries and Seukeni one.
“Seigia Seukeni would stand up for the Southern side and drag multiple defenders over 10 metres for a try in the 29th minute in a display of incredible strength,” the ACT Brumbies wrote in their match report.
Seukeni and Saula are of Samoan heritage. Their favourite player is All Blacks winger Portia Woodman, who is set to retire after the Paris Olympics.
Kelsey is a dynamic scrumhalf who is also a nurse and mental health worker.
Lonsdale is a year 12 student from St Francis De Sales College. She is six-foot (183cm) tall and her height, reach and speed have turned her into a try-scoring machine for the Blacks. She scored a hat-trick in her first match for the senior local team in April.
Megan Lonsdale says rugby union is more unpredictable than league. Photo: Oliver Jacques.
The teenager was also praised in the Brumbies’ match report.
“Southern Inland’s winger Megan Lonsdale managed to cross for the third try of the match in the right corner, after quick hands from her side delivered the ball to the number 11 in the nick of time … Lonsdale however would be unsatisfied with just a 7 point lead going into the break, extending her side’s lead to 12 after scoring in the 38th minute. With a slick backline play taking the ball out to the winger, she then showed off plenty of speed outrunning any would-be Monaro tacklers.”
Lonsdale has also weighed in on the never-ending code war between league and union, explaining why her sport is better.
“The people who play it are better … I enjoy watching it more. There are more contests, it’s rougher. You never know what’s going to happen,” she said.
Original Article published by Oliver Jacques on Region Riverina.
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