A PACIFIC Games silver medal, emotional embraces with their rivals, selfies and team photos - it was an eventful conclusion to Jakiya Whitfeld's latest senior appearance with the Australian women's rugby sevens team.
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The Bathurst star and her Australian team-mates - who included fellow Central West talent Darcie Morrison - conceded just one try on their way to qualifying for the Pacific Games decider at Samoa's Marist Saint Josephs Stadium.
But in the gold medal match Fiji scored first then crossed again in the dying stages to post a 14-5 win against the Australians.
"Initially when you've lost it is disappointing, but once a little bit of time passes you realise how well everyone played. We did have a very young team and played really well, it just wasn't our game in the end," Whitfeld said.
"It was crazy, all there was was Fiji, everyone was going for Fiji. Even before the game finished they were singing because they knew they were going to win - everyone was going crazy for them."
It was a packed week for Whitfeld, who only made her senior national debut last October, as she and her fellow Australians both embraced the spirit of the Games and posted some impressive wins.
While admittedly nervous, the Bathurst Bulldogs talent showed her trademark strong fend, hard hitting defence and explosive speed throughout.
"I still find it very nerve racking, more so it's because of who we come up against. At that level all the teams are a lot better, so it's bit scary to see who you are going to come up against and what the other teams are going to be like," she said.
"Every time I'm still as nervous as the last and every game over there I thought I wouldn't be as nervous as the games went on, but I think I actually found it more nerve racking. It wasn't until you get on the field and relax that it's alright.
"You don't want to do anything wrong and want to try and do your best. You are being watched, so it's an opportunity to do well ... you want to make the most of the opportunity you have to play and you don't want to lose any game time."
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Whitfeld was amongst the try scorers as Australia cruised through its pool games, defeating American Samoa 61-0, New Caledonia 43-0 and Samoa 38-0.
They crushed Solomon Islands 50-0 in the quarter-finals and fought off a determined Papua New Guinea 31-7 in the semi-final.
"Australia has always been a really fit team which worked well for us. The Islander teams have a lot bigger girls and we were a lot fitter, so that obviously worked to our advantage and helped us in getting around them," Whitfeld said.
"There were a few games where the teams, you could tell, were not as experienced as us. But PNG, that score didn't really reflect how tough they were, coming up against them we hadn't had a team which had challenged us at all.
"It was good to come up against them before we played Fiji because we had to defend a little bit more and it was a lot harder."
