After 11 rounds the top six of the BMD Premiership has been finalised, with minor premiers the Brisbane Tigers, and second-placed finishers the Souths Logan Magpies enjoying a week off and automatically progressing through to the preliminary finals.
However, the third-placed Burleigh Bears will play in the first week of finals as they host the sixth placed Norths Devils at UAA Park.
After a winless month, the Norths Devils won their final game of the season against the Western Clydesdales to qualify for the finals.
It was the usual suspects who delivered for the Devils in their recent must-win bout, with Fanua Rimoni continuing to carry a heavy workload in the middle – running for 205 metres in 19 runs.
Despite the loss of Paris Pickering earlier in the season, Natahlia Moors and Rowena Koonwaiyou have stepped up in the centres, with the duo combining for seven tries in their last four matches.
However, the centre duo of Deleni Paitai and Shaianne McGlone have scored nine tries in their past four matches for the Burleigh Bears, presenting a mouth-watering matchup out wide.
The recent form of the Bears’ centres has been a shining light in an otherwise up and down end to the year, with Burleigh winning only two of their last six matches.
If Burleigh are to progress through to the preliminary finals, their captain Teaghan Hartigan will need to continue her stellar form at hooker.
Since returning to hooker for the Bears, Hartigan has been a maestro at dummy-half, assisting or scoring a try in each of her last three games.
Catch all the action from the first game of the BMD Premiership finals series live and free via Qplus.tv.
