Girl power reigns supreme!

Whoever coined the saying "girls can do anything" would be having a field day perusing the results of Wairarapa sporting teams this winter.
The female of the species are proving beyond doubt that those still brave enough to deem them the weaker sex are fighting a losing battle.
In rugby, netball and hockey our women are regularly hogging the headlines, and they haven't had to burn their bras to do it either!
Results are what counts and they are delivering big time
Eketahuna's effort to reach the semi-finals of the Wellington premier division women's rugby competition is huge.
This is their debut season there after finishing runners-up in the weaker Manawatu senior grade last season and the initial objective was to make the top six playoffs with anything more being seen as a bonus.
Well, they are now in a position where they are one of only four teams who can win the title.
And, what's more, their 43-10 thumping of Oriental-Rongotai on Saturday meant they finished the preliminary round of the top six series in second place, behind only unbeaten Norths on the points table.
Which in turn gave them home advantage for their semi-final match with Johnsonville this coming weekend.
In two clashes with a Johnsonville side which at one stage of the season was averaging close to 100 points per game, Eketahuna have had a big loss and a narrow win.
So while nothing is certain about the semi result they are definitely in with a chance, and that alone speaks volumes for the progress they have made.
Tactically Eketahuna play smart rugby.
Having one of the lightest packs in the competition means there is little value in trying to out-muscle their opposition. The less time they spend in scrums and mauls the better for them.
Their strength up front lies in their athleticism and mobility and with a set of backs who have attacking potential to burn the emphasis is largely on spreading the ball wide, thereby asking big questions about the fitness of their opposition.
It's an attractive style of play and one which has endeared them to their increasingly growing band of loyal supporters.
Harcourts had the Wairarapa netball community buzzing with their hard-fought 50-45 win over Rimutaka at Taita on Saturday.
It was their fourth successive win in division two of the regional superleague competition and, more importantly, earned them promotion to division one, where they will come up against the very top clubs from the Wellington, Hutt Valley and Kapi Mana regions.
Whether Harcourts can measure up to the higher standard of play they will meet there remains to be seen but to even be in such elite company is a massive accomplishment whatever their results.
What has appealed most about Harcourts in the superleague has been their ability to respond positively to pressure situations.
Remembering they were coming out of a Wairarapa premier one competition where they could invariably hammer their opponents without raising a decent sweat there was always the prospect they would find it difficult to lift their effort when it mattered most. Simply because they were not used of being in that position.
Against Rimutaka they were up against a side which also required a win to guarantee themselves promotion to division one. Therefore the dog eat dog scenario was always going to ensure a high intensity battle and that it did, Rimutaka actually taking a one goal lead into the last four minutes of play.
If ever Harcourts were to have nervous palpitations this was it for their whole superleague season was virtually on the line but instead they rethought their tactics, dug deep and pulled away to win by a five-goal margin.
With resolve like that the challenges of division one play for them might not be as imposing as many people could think.
Dalefield have not yet cemented their place in the semi-finals of the Wellington premier division women's hockey competition but they are well on the way to doing so, sitting in fourth place on the points table, a comfortable seven points clear of the fifth-placed side.
What makes this such an impressive effort is that week after week Dalefield comes up against opposition which includes a bevy of New Zealand senior or age group representatives.
As club competitions go it is an incredibly tough ask for a side which itself contains a number of rookies at this level yet their very latest match showed that while they will be at long odds to win the premier division title they are not without a chance.
Then they played Indians, who had beaten them twice previously and are sitting second on the points table.
Indians are a feisty type of team who like to play the game at breakneck speed and the challenge for Dalefield was to get in their faces from the word go with the idea of pressurising them into mistakes.
So well did Dalefield implement their game plan they scored the first goal and went to halftime with a deserved 2-1 lead and Indians had to pull out all stops in the second spell to draw level at 2-2, which was to be the end result.
Repeat that performance on a consistent basis as the business end of the hockey season approaches and Dalefield's title hopes will obviously be enhanced.
Eketahuna, Harcourts and Dalefield ... who could argue that girl power doesn't reign supreme on the sporting fields of the Wairarapa?