South-East come on top after competitive Opens Nationals

The three Opens trophies headed to the South-East at the end of the opening weekend of the 2021 Nationals, but the Sharks and Taipans had to battle hard for the silverware.

The derbies between the two teams, both in the round-robin and finals stages, were understandably hard fought, with the finals in particular belying terrible conditions to be outstanding matches in their own right.

But there were plenty of other eye-catching match-ups throughout the weekend, not least in the Mixed Open, where the West Wildcats took both of the finalists to 10-all draws, with the Sharks only earning a share of the spoils with a try in the final passage of play.

However, with the Wildcats, Midlands Tigers and North-West Blades all taking points off each other, the Sharks and Taipans progressed, the team in blue taking the spoils, 6-3.

The Men’s Open was played in biblically poor weather, the rain lashing down onto Lady Bay. But the skill and pace did not diminish, the error rate remained creditably low, and the teams matched each other blow for blow before the Sharks pulled away to win 6-3.

The round-robin stages were also very competitive, with the majority of games only being decided by two or three tries after 40 minutes of action.

In the Women’s Open the Taipans were deserved champions, going through the whole competition undefeated, including pipping the Sharks 4-3 in both the round-robin at the end of day 1 and then the final itself at the end of day 2 in what was a worthy finish to the weekend, the first time that the Women’s Open had been the showpiece finale – the sun finally making an appearance, too!

But both the Sharks and Taipans were pushed all the way by North-West Blades, whose youth-dominated team lost to the two finalists by only two tries each.

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So the South-East region has taken the 2021 Nationals by the scruff of the neck, with the Seniors and Masters (w/end Aug 14th/15th) and Juniors (Aug 22nd) still to come.