This gold medal meant a lot to Georgia Marino.
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The Port Macquarie youngster was one of five Hastings players to emerge from the International OzTag Series in Coffs Harbour victorious in their respective divisions on August 7.
Representing New Zealand Kiwi Barbarians mixed opens, Marino claimed gold alongside Australia's Port Macquarie quartet Greg Gleeson and Shaun Magnus (both men's 50s), Alan Darling (men's 60s) and Mandy McKinnon (women's 40s).
And while Marino was pleased to achieve her second medal at OzTag level under coach Harry Olsen, it was the off-field highlights that stood out despite the 8-5 win over the Philippines in the final.
"It was more so the ability to play with that side that meant more to me than any medal we could have earned," she said.
"The medal was special, don't get me wrong, but I think representing and learning about my culture was huge.
"That was really important to me and was the highlight, not really the medal at the end of the day. That was just the cherry on top."
The 20-year-old said the international tournament was an amazing opportunity to represent her heritage.
"To represent New Zealand... my dad is part Mori so that's just a part of who I am and I've never really had an opportunity to do that before. To go out there and play OzTag for New Zealand was pretty special."
Magnus said the Australian men's 50s were absolutely "busted", yet overcame a number of hurdles on the way to a 6-2 win over Great Britain.
They went through the tournament undefeated with a 4-all draw with the Brits in the second round their only slip-up across the three days where they scored an impressive 79 tries in eight matches.
"It's one of the gutsiest wins I've been involved with," Magnus said.
"We were busted. We had a key player dislocate his shoulder on Friday, then we had hamstrings, calf muscles and I think it was the result of the wet weather where a lot of the guys hadn't been playing a lot."
Those remaining players who were fit on the final day all had to overcome weariness after playing big minutes the day before.
"It just made it a bit more special and one to savour," Magnus said.
McKinnon scored two tries in Australia's 6-0 thumping of the Cook Islands in the women's 40s grand final while Gleeson said it was just good to play in a tournament again.
"We were meant to play back in 2020 and it's been delayed because of COVID," he said.
But arguably the most impressive performance came from Australia's men's 60s team with Alan Darling involved who didn't claim a single point on the first day.
They then came home with a wet sail and beat Greece 6-4 in the final.
"We turned things around on Saturday and finished well on Sunday, but the team never lost confidence," Darling said.
"I had the feeling that we could beat two of the sides in our group so that wasn't a concern come Saturday and we did beat those two sides on the Saturday.
"We lost the last one on Saturday but then won the semi and then the final."
Meanwhile, Deon Glassie (men's 50s) represented New Zealand and was awarded the most valuable player of his team in their bronze-medal winning tournament.
Ava Glassie also won bronze for New Zealand in the women's 18s while Tana Marino claimed a silver medal for New Zealand after they were beaten by Australia in the under-18 final.
Both Tana and Ava are only 16 years old and impressed playing against predominantly 18-year-old's.
