A woman has quite literally thrown a game away in a heartrending reminder of how important it is to play to the referee’s whistle.
During a women’s rugby league grand final a player has momentarily forgotten the rules and began celebrating the victory before the game was officially over.
As the siren sounds the woman can be seen throwing the ball into the air and begin celebrating with teammates, before an opposition player swoops in and runs untouched to the try line to steal victory.
A woman has quite literally thrown a game away in a heartrending reminder of how important it is to play to the referee’s whistle
As the siren sounds the woman can be seen throwing the ball into the air before an opposition player swoops in and runs untouched to the try line to steal victory
The error occurred during a Newcastle Oztag B-grade grand final between West Wallsend Magpies and the Cardiff Cobrettes.
The game had been tied 4-4 at half time and neither team had been able to crack their opponent’s defence the entire second half, until Wallsend were awarded a penalty in front of goal with a minute left and they slotted the conversion.
The Magpies were attempting to run out the clock as the siren sounded.
A woman took the ball from dummy half as the hooter went off, before throwing the ball in the air and immediately celebrating with teammates. The game, however, was not over.
Under the rules of the game, the referees can continue play in the event of a knock-on unless there is no advantage to the attacking team or both teams commit an error.
BarTV Sports commentators, who were attending the day’s fixtures at Newcastle Number 1 Sports Ground, can be heard screaming ‘is this play on?’ as the ball falls into the hands of a Cardiff player.
‘This is play on! She’s thrown the ball in the air! What is going on here? Oh no!’ the commentator screams as a mixture of ecstasy and horror sweeps over the crowd.
‘This is play on! She’s thrown the ball in the air! What is going on here? Oh no!’ the commentator screams as a mixture of ecstasy and horror sweeps over the crowd
‘This is play on! She’s thrown the ball in the air! What is going on here? Oh no!’ the commentator screams as a mixture of ecstasy and horror sweeps over the crowd
Cobrettes players and coaches then run onto the field and join the celebrations as Magpies players can be seen heartbroken in the foreground.
Bryden Sloan Harris, the opportunistic Cardiff player who scored the winning try, told Daily Mail Australia the final minute went from ‘devastation to the complete opposite’.
‘When she first threw it up I straight away thought that the ball was still in play and maybe this was the miracle we needed,’ Ms Sloan Harris said.
‘Everyone from both teams had turned away and started to walk off so I knew I had to get to the ball as soon as possible in case the ref just ended up just calling for full time.’
In a matter of seconds Ms Harris flies in, scoops up the ball and races through the Wallsend defensive line as a Wallsend player hopelessly runs behind her hoping for a similarly freakish error.
‘One girl from the other team said she saw my eyes watching the ball and light up and thought ‘S***! She’s going to go for it!’ You can see her running after me and is really close to tagging me before I made that break,’ Ms Sloan Harris said.
Bryden Sloan Harris, the opportunistic Cardiff player who scored the winning try, told Daily Mail Australia the final minute went from ‘devastation to the complete opposite’
Cobrettes players and coaches then run onto the field and join the celebrations as Magpies players can be seen heartbroken in the foreground
Cobrettes players and coaches then run onto the field and join the celebrations as Magpies players can be seen heartbroken in the foreground
She told Daily Mail Australia she was thinking as she was running how sorry she felt for her opposition, but was also ‘stoked’ she was able to steal the win.
‘I knew you always play to the whistle! I just had dads words ringing in my ears ‘Its my over til the fat lady sings!’
Her favourite part of the footage wasn’t the try itself, rather her coach running down the field after predicting they would take the ball back and win right at the end.
‘One of the best parts of that video for me is my coach Vincent running down the sideline celebrating, pulling his pants up because he wore no undies ‘for luck’ and throwing his drink bottle up into space,’ Ms Sloan Harris said.
She said despite the heartbreaking loss and costly error, the Wallsend players were extremely respectful and showed great sportsmanship.
‘One of the best parts of that video for me is my coach Vincent (pictured right) running down the sideline celebrating, pulling his pants up because he wore no undies ‘for luck’ and throwing his drink bottle up into space,’ Ms Sloan Harris said
The video was posted on Facebook and has been viewed nearly 200,000 times with nearly 4,000 comments. Reaction has been mixed between people blaming the woman for not knowing the rules and others expressing their heartbreak for the player who was simply overexcited.
‘Can we all just remember that there’s a girl that’s deverstated about that last 10 seconds of the game a pure mistake that she won’t live down,’ one person said.
‘Anything can happen in footy you always play to the whistle young fella,’ another Facebook user commented.
The footage should now act a reminder for players of any and all levels that it’s not over till it’s over.