South Sydney Rabbitohs women's captain Lavina O'Mealey has praised her teammates' work in the pre-season after her side's demolition of the Newcastle CRL team 54-4 in Round 1 of the Harvey Norman Women's Premiership.
The Jillaroos representative admitted that there were plenty of nerves going around the change room before kick-off, but said that she and her teammates were ecstatic to be a part of the Club's proud history by putting on the South Sydney Rabbitohs jersey for the first time.
“It’s sort of indescribable,” said O'Mealey.
“Everyone was so nervous before the match putting on our Red and Green jerseys and seeing Greg Inglis in the sheds before we ran onto the field. There were nerves, but we’re happy with the win.”
Leading at the break 18-4 after a scrappy first half, the Rabbitohs ran rampant in the second stanza, piling on six unanswered tries to crack the half century.
O’Mealey, donning the no.6 jersey, said that the work that the squad had done over the off-season was better reflected in their second half blitz.
“We had a bit of a rough start over the first half,“ she said.
“It was a bit sloppy and we were getting the cobwebs out in our first match. I thought the second half was a real compliment to the way we trained leading up to the match. I’m very happy.”
With nine tries scored in their first match, O’Mealey cited the combinations and relationships between her teammates from previous years as a catalyst for the Round 1 romp.
“The combinations definitely played their part. Some of us had played two or three seasons before we even got that premiership win last season, and we have some really good combinations going and I think the scoreboard really reflected that.”