Another huge weekend in the Harvery Norman Women's Premiership competition, with one team emerging as the team to beat.
Central Coast Roosters 20 def Wests Tigers 10
The Central Coast Roosters have recorded three wins on the trot in NSWRL’s elite women’s competition with a solid 20-4 victory over the Wests Tigers at Morry Breen Oval today, but it didn’t come easy.
Ladder leaders Central Coast were trailing early in the clash, thanks to a try from Tigers centre Tia Cook and the scores remained at 4-0 heading into the half-time break.
“They were really good physically up the middle, they were really testing us, all credit to them because they came out and were really, really good,” Roosters hooker Kylie Hilder said.
“I think we definitely needed a tough hit out.”
The Roosters kicked into gear in the second half through enforcer Caitlan Johnston in the 40th minute.
Eight minutes later, the home side were in again through Mounties recruit Brydie Parker then Harvery Norman NSW Women’s Origin lock Hannah Southwell crashed over to add to the Roosters tally and take the lead and the final scores to 20-4.
“The first couple of weeks we had it fairly easy, so to come out and have a tough first half has done us wonders especially leading into a bye and then we really had to fight hard and play some good footy to get on top of them in the second half,” Hilder said.
“Everyone is starting to understand their roles and it was hot today, it was the first time we’ve had to play in a bit of heat as well but credit to our girls because we stuck with our game plan and we got on top of them.”
Canterbury Bankstown-Bulldogs 18 def North Sydney Bears 16
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs steal the win 18-16 in a top-and-tail contest against the North Sydney Bears right on the full-time siren.
From the start of the match, each side was never confidently in the lead with tries being scored from team-to-team in this epic display of Women’s Rugby league.
The Bulldogs went into half-time with a 8-6 lead but the slim point differential meant that it was still anyone’s game.
The Bears came out fighting, scoring a try six minutes into the second half with a successful conversion, putting them up 12-6 but the blue and white bit back four minutes later with a try of their own.
In the 54th minute, it looked like Bears would send the visiting team home with a loss, as they scored another four-pointer climbing the scoreboard to 16-12 but in the final two minutes, Bulldogs fullback Haneen Zreika scored an epic final try to level the scores.
Bulldogs halfback, Quincy Dodd, had no successful conversion the whole game, but when it counted in the final minute, she aced the kick and slotted the ball between the posts to secure her side the win to the tune of the full-time buzzer.
Bulldogs Captain Sam Economos spoke about the intensity of the face-off.
“It was definitely an arm wrestle game,” she told NSWRL.com.au
“We had majority of possession and Bears defended really well. There was a lot of hard defence in the middle and gritty plays.
“It was hard to score both ends because the line defence of each side was awesome and everyone barged up really quickly, but we’re stoked to get the win,
“Neither team gave up, it really did come down to the final whistle.”
Other matches:
South Sydney Rabbitohs 14 def Wentworthville Magpies 4
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