Last Saturday was a special day for not only the South Sydney Rabbitohs women’s side, winning their first match of the Harvey Norman Women's Premiership, but also for the Allende family, with father Danny as Head Coach and daughter Jasmin wearing the no.13 jersey.
Allende produced a powerhouse performance, bagging a double and making plenty of tackle breaks offloads creating opportunities for her teammates.
But the modest lock forward credited her peers in the engine room as the catalyst for their improved second half, with a 54-4 landslide victory over Newcastle CRL.
“Our game plan was to have the forwards dominate and lay the platform,” Jasmin said.
“You’re always going to have to blow some of the cobwebs out and getting the combinations right in the first game back. But once we got a roll on we improved in the end and got our backs involved and the tries began to pile up.”
Plenty have pulled on the Red and Green jersey in the Club’s 110-year history, but with a women’s 13-a-side team playing for the first time, Allende conceded that gravity of the occasion played its part throughout the match, but was thrilled with the chance to be a South Sydney Rabbitohs player.
“There’s no words to describe it,” she said.
“It’s great to be a part of this legacy, and being able to create and set that platform, and I think it’s evidence from our first match that we went out to do that.
“We were definitely nervous and you could tell in the change room we were all pretty quiet compared to what we normally are but it was good to just get onto the pitch and we were more comfortable once we got the nerves out of the way.”
Allende gave credit to her father and Head Coach, citing his ability to understand and work with his team as they make their push for premiership glory.
“It’s good, he’s a great coach and he knows all of our strengths and our weaknesses and he’s always there looking to improve us as players,” she said.
“We had a big off season and pre-season, so it’s good to get the results early.”
