Resolute defense sees Monaro Colts women sink Central Coast Roosters

Economos was one of four Goulburn locals in the Monaro women's squad, and was joined on the field by Elly Hazelton at fullback.

In spite of the one-sided scoreline, the match was far from smooth sailing.

After a strong first half, Monaro lead 8-0. But the second half was rife with errors and forced the Colts to play defensively to fend off repeated approaches from the Roosters.

The Colts had several strong sets, but repeatedly dropped the ball on clutch plays, which allowed the Central Coast to steal back momentum.

After superb defensive efforts stifled the Roosters' try-scoring attempts, Monaro forward Jacinta Williams crossed to put the game out of Central Coast's reach.

Head coach Josh Hardy described the win as "very important", but said their completion rate needed to improve.

"We need two wins to guarantee a spot in the semis, so it was a scrappy win but we'll take it.

"There's positives to take out of it. The girls must like tackling, because they did a lot of it, and our completion was pretty poor in the second half.

"That's definitely an area that will need to be fixed up if we want to be competitive next week."

Economos, who played a crucial role at prop throughout the match, was pleased with the grit the team showed when under the pump.

"I think the first half was pretty good, our completions were good and we were right up there in defence, getting off the line and keeping in their half," she said.

"The start of the second half we probably dropped a bit more ball than we would have hoped, but I guess the positive to come out of that is we kept them to zero.

"They had multiple sets on our line, but our defense was really good and really solid."

The Colts will now play Riverina in Leeton this Sunday, March 15.

This match will be a significant challenge for Monaro, as Riverina won the competition in 2019. However, the defending champions slumped to a 34-8 loss against Illawarra on Saturday.

"We can knock [Riverina] off," Economos said.

"I think everyone will be pretty positive, have a good training next Saturday. The girls will be confident we can do it, we've just got to play well and put a good performance on the park."

After round two, the competition will progress into finals. The second round clash between the Monaro Colts women and the Riverina women will take place at Leeton Number One Oval on Sunday, March 15, from 11.20am.

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