Three tries from Emma Clements helped the Albury-Wodonga Steamers to their first win of the season on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
After three defeats and three byes, a stop-start campaign finally took off at Murrayfield as the Steamers battled to a 22-0 victory over Leeton.
The home side were made to work hard early but once they got their noses in front, they never looked like relinquishing control.
"It was awesome to get our first win of the season," coach Tully MacPherson said.
"Having had so many byes in the first six weeks of the season, it's been hard to have the consistency to put a performance together so it was nice to see them get over the line.
"We changed up our structure from the last couple of weeks to simplify things.
"It was very forwards-dominated from us and Leeton; they're quite a forward-heavy team but we managed to have a really strong ruck presence in the game and that worked well for us because once we sucked them in, we were able to swing it wide and get around their edges a couple of times.
"We stuck to the game plan and it worked well."
The home side scored their first try five minutes before half-time and ran in three more during the second half.
Kaitlyn McKay touched down, adding to Clements' hat-trick, while Holly Mills capped a fine performance at fly-half by kicking a conversion.
"Emma had a really strong game," MacPherson said.
"She was able to play more to her strengths because our forwards laid the platform.
"In recent weeks, she's not had clean ball at the back of the ruck, so because we were able to secure it strongly in the tackles, it allowed her to see when she was able to go blind and twice, near the try line, she did that."
MacPherson stressed the quality of the Steamers' all-round team performance in getting the job done.
"Everyone played their part," he said.
"Holly Mills filled in really well. Our normal fly-half was away, so she came in never having played the position and did a great job.
"Our hooker, Susan Curby, kept going and she got a bunch of steals and made a bunch of tackles and she was just a workhorse."
ALSO IN SPORT:
MacPherson hopes the Steamers will take confidence from this result ahead of trips to Reddies and WAC over the next fortnight.
"It's been a very frustrating season," he admitted.
"We're up to round seven of the tournament and this was only our fourth game.
"We played a game in round one, then we had a bye, then it was Easter, when there were no games, then we played a game and we had two weeks off.
"To finally get two games in a row and be able to put some time on the field, it's a nice change.
"You'll always take a lot of confidence out of a win but to hold the other team to nil was especially pleasing.
"We defended our line for the first 10 minutes and didn't let them score."
Leeton forfeited the scheduled men's games at first and second-grade level.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark https://www.bordermail.com.au/
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter: @bordermail
- Follow us on Instagram @bordermail
- Follow us on Google News.