At roughly 2.45pm on Monday afternoon, the Central North under 16s girls' players celebrated loudly, hugging one another as they cheered and, in some cases, wept with joy.
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Their excitement was evoked by the full-time whistle to end the NSW Junior Rugby Union State Championship Plate game at Sydney's Boronia Park.
"It was a great feeling as a coach to see them all come together at the end and cheer and hug," Central North co-coach, Miah O'Sullivan, said.
"There were a few happy tears as well. It was a great way to finish off the weekend."
Central North's 24-10 win over Gordon in the grand final was the culmination of a superb weekend, which impressed O'Sullivan all the more for the relative inexperience and lack of size within the squad.
"Our girls are a little bit younger and more inexperienced," O'Sullivan said.
"A big thing for us was that we had a lot of talent, but not a lot of size on our side. But we kept reiterating the no talent required things like effort and attitude, which will push them further as not only players, but people."
What impressed O'Sullivan almost as much as the team's performance on the field was how quickly the players gelled off it.
"Coming together as a group, we didn't have any issues in that sense," O'Sullivan said.
"Everybody bought into the program, so we were very lucky."
Because of their age, the girls had not played much 15s rugby prior to the tournament, and the sheer size of the Central North region made training together regularly impossible.
Playing in Central North's favour was the presence of two of the best players in the tournament within their lineup.
Emily Dietrich, who played at halfback, was named the Best Back of the division, while Holly Ford narrowly missed out on the competition-wide Best Forward accolade. Instead, Ford was voted the Central North's Best Forward and Players' Player.
"They're two integral players for our team, and there were a few other key playmakers in the mix," O'Sullivan said.
"But those two really stood out, not only to us but to the selectors and other teams across the weekend."
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