That kick assured he could call himself a Women’s Rugby League World Cup winning coach, Donald’s Jillaroos defeating the Kiwi Ferns 23-16 in the finale at Brisbane.

The win capped off a brilliant 12 months for the former Bathurst Panther, as his Jillaroos outfit did not suffer defeat once in 2017.

There were nervous moments before Donald got to embrace his players, hoist the trophy and belt out the Jillaroos’ team song.

With just over 11 minutes to go Kiwi five-eighth Raecene McGregor crossed to put her side within reach at 22-16 and soon after Jillaroos fullback Nakia Davis-Welsh left the field injured.

But the defending champions held on.

“I normally go down to the sidelines when I think we’ve got the game won and I didn’t go down until she kicked the field goal. Then I was running through the stadium trying to find the quickest way onto the field,” Donald said.

“There was no point in that game where I thought we had it won until the end. It wasn’t pretty, but we got there.”

In the first half the Jillaroos scored first via Isabelle Kelly, but the Kiwis lifted. In the first 30 minutes the Ferns had a 93 percent completion rate and were tackled 13 times inside Australia’s 20 metres.

Winger Honey Hireme crossed twice for the Kiwis to give them a 10-6 lead before Moran stepped her way over five out from the break and converted her effort to put the Jillaroos up 12-10.

“At half-time when we went in, when I got to the dressing sheds, it felt like the girls were behind. I said to them ‘You couldn’t have put together a scratchier performance, we looked really nervous and panicky, but we’re in front.’

“That just showed all we needed to do was relax and we got the girls to lift their heads up and go out there and really enjoy that second half. They did and that’s when they skipped out to a bit more of a lead.

“We were just fortunate enough to hold them out in that last 10 minutes when they did put a fair bit of pressure on us. It was definitely tough.”