Five players from this year’s squad are still at secondary school, and others are still under 21, and if they continue along the pathway, there is a real spark among this squad.
Among those are Abigail Paton, who has starred off the bench at halfback, reserve hooker Hannah Lithgow and backs Charlotte Va’afusuaga and Te Atawhai Campbell.
"I think that’s probably one thing to sort of look at when you look at the age of our team and where we’re at," coach Craig Sneddon said.
"It’s easy to forget how young a lot of our players are when you compare that to maybe Northland in the weekend, when they had that more experience in those big games.
"The more time [the Spirit] get at that level, the better they’re going to be, and if we can hold on to all those players for a good period of time then it’s only going to bode well for the future."
Sneddon felt the standard of the Farah Palmer Cup had lifted — "it comes down to small margins" — but was disappointed to miss the final.
"Obviously we would’ve liked to have been playing this weekend. That was always the goal.
"But I think we all felt that in terms of the brand of rugby we played, and what we tried to do ... we committed to moving the ball and playing.
"I think we scored some pretty good tries at that."
He enjoyed his first year at the helm of the Spirit and praised the players for their commitment.
"Obviously it’s a national competition, so there’s a few adjustments to make as a coach to try and get your head around trying to plan that campaign.
"They were a great bunch of girls to coach. Everyone bought in to what we were trying to do — can’t fault the commitment."
He was happy to "sit on the fence" for a winner between Manawatu and Northland for Sunday’s Championship final.
Best game
Win v North Harbour 37-12
Both wins over North Harbour were impressive, but the Spirit’s intent in this one lifted a notch to get them on track after their first loss the week before. Strong across the park, clinical at keeping North Harbour out and Sheree Hume injected herself to set up several of the Spirit’s stunning team tries under the roof.
Worst game
Loss v Northland 42-20
Tough battle against a big and experienced Northland pack. Northland dominated the opening 20 minutes of each half, with Black Fern prop Krystal Murray leading the charge with a hat-trick.
MVP
Leah Miles
Never plays a bad game. Huge workload around the breakdown, strong ball carrier and a brutal defender, making 130 tackles, the most in the competition. Sheree Hume and Georgia Cormick were also strong.
Most improved
Jamie Church
Church returned to the Spirit this season to finish as the competition’s leading try-scorer with 11 tries and was second for metres made on 718. An absolute dynamite on the wing.
Emerging talent
Charlotte Va’afusuaga.
The St Hilda’s year 12 pupil never looked out of place at fullback, or on the wing, and was impressive in the starting side or off the bench.
