It was a moment that all but sealed the 2022 Harvey Norman Tarsha Gale Cup for the Indigenous Academy Sydney Roosters.
With 21 minutes left in the match, and trailing the Newcastle Knights 10-6, second-rower Otesa Pule charged onto the football one out from the ruck at the halfway line, shrugging off a trio of defenders, and racing away to score behind the posts.
Halfback Tayla Montgomery added the extras to lead 12-10; enough for the tricolours to come away victorious in the decider with Pule later named Player of the Finals series.
Her Grand Final try was her 13th in a 2022 season where she also produced two try assists, 17 line-breaks, an unstoppable 105 tackle busts (11.7 per game), 159 run metres per game, and 172 tackles with just two misses.
Following her season in the junior representative competition, the 19-year-old stepped up to join the Central Coast Roosters for six matches in the Harvey Norman NSW Women’s Premiership, where she shifted between second row and prop while averaging 100 metres and 19.8 tackles.
Another milestone for the Caboolture junior was representing Queensland in the Women’s Under 19s State of Origin, before making her NRLW debut off the bench for the Roosters during their 38-16 win over the Parramatta Eels.
Pule finished the season with six appearances in the top grade – starting at second row in Round Four against Newcastle – and capped that off by winning the Roosters’ NRLW Rookie of the Year award.
Although Pule was eased into the NRLW from the interchange in 2022, she later earned a spot in the Kiwi Ferns’ World Cup squad – scoring her first international try in the Semi-final win over England.
From what Otesa Pule’s produced in 2022, the explosive back-rower is well on her way to establishing herself as one of the rising stars in women’s Rugby League.
