If the going ever gets tough next season...

... things could be worse. Women's Rugby Review have picked up a story that appeared in the Australian Daily Telegraph (absolutely no relationship to the British paper of the same name, incidentally) who seem to have been doing a search for Australia's worst sports team.

Because, believe it or not, not every Australian sports team is an all-conquering steamroller - occasionally there is the odd team that are less than world-beaters. However, one effect of Aussie sports culture is that if you are a bit lacking the opposition will not let up and take their foot off the pedal just because they are 50 or 100 points up. Oh no.

So spare a thought for Wollondilly White Waratahs women's rugby team (from somewhere near Sydney before you ask - they are the ones in the white, black and green stripes in the picture), a bunch of sports-mad women (emphasis on the second word maybe) who got together to enter a team in the Premier Division of the Sydney Rugby League (there is only the one division in fact...). They made a good start as one team promptly withdrew from the league, thus granting the Waratahs a "28-0" walkover... but after that things went slightly downhill.

Once they got onto the field - and being relatively new to the game (like none of them had played before) - loses of 83-0 and 88-0 in their first two games were perhaps not too surprising, but it was their next fixture against Parramatta which made the rugby world sit up and take notice as our heros went down 237-0, or (if you do the maths and assume pretty much every try was converted) a try every two minutes or so (you see what I mean about Aussie sport culture?). Since then the scores have not be quite as bad as that, but still not good - 0-112, 0-137, 0-140, 0-168, 0-121, and (last weekend) 0-170. So far Wollondilly have now conceded 1,385 points in 12 games without scoring once themselves - and there are still four games to go.

However they remain upbeat - nearly scoring in a recent game when they were held up over the line - and their aim is record that elusive first try before the season ends (on 1st September). So the best of luck to them in their away game at Warringah - a side currently unbeaten and second in the league...

Personally, its the coach I sympathise with. I find there is something eerily familiar about these words...

"Two girls involved with the club saw a women's rugby game a few years ago and thought "why not?'" They approached me and I told them if they could get a team together I'd coach and get them into the competition. My big mouth."