The Western Force are relishing the opportunity to play in front of their home fans after a turbulent period, set to kick off the Super W season against the Reds.
It will be a homecoming for both of the Force's teams, with the men's side forced on the road to start Super Rugby Pacific.
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However, this pales in comparison to the sacrifices the women's side have gone through, with Friday's clash at HBF Park against the Reds ending a 726-day wait.
“It’s pretty exciting to get some game time and have that first game at home,” Force forward Anneka Stephens said.
“It means a lot and we’ve worked really hard to get to this point. We’re just thankful that the borders have opened to play."
The Force have extra motivation heading into this season, forced to withdraw from the 2021 edition due to COVID.
The WA-based club had already made the trip to Coffs Harbour, however, the NSW outbreak gave them little option but to head back home after just one game.
“It was real disappointing for us, but COVID is COVID, we wanted to be safe,” Stephens reflected.
“Finally getting that green light, it’s just built a lot of fire in our tummy and we are raring the go, it’s really important for us.
“There were a lot of tears, a lot of emotions. We just tried to make sure everyone’s mental health was alright because we worked so hard and we were all over there on game day when we got told no so a lot of us were hurting.
“We just stuck together and that’s what brought us closer and more determined this year. We weren’t finished.”
With fears of a repeat in 2022, Stephens and the Force were excited to get the green light to impress in front of friends and family.
“As soon as they said it wasn’t going to open, we thought ‘oh no here we go again’,” she admitted when asked if they feared they would not be able to play in this year’s competition.
“We’ve worked so far and we weren’t going to get anything so it just put a lot of doubt in the girls’ minds but we had our leadership group keep them going and positive, our coaches were reminding us ‘this is not the end, we’ll get game time we just don’t know when.’
“We just keep pushing and pushing.
"...“To get that green light, (it) means the world to us and our families."
READ MORE:
TEAMS: All the team news for round three
SPEED: Force looking to burn Reds
LAUNCH: Super W season launch
