Though questions remain as to whether the season will go ahead, the Goulburn Dirty Reds women are training with intent ahead of the 2020 season opener next Saturday.
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After today's trial match in Canberra was cancelled due to new coronavirus cases, the newly-scheduled starting date of July 18 has been thrown into question.
But Dirty Reds co-coach, Ash Mewburn, said the cancellation did not impact the team's preparation.
"We've picked up where we left off from preseason," Mewburn said.
"We're supposed to have a trial match today, but because of the new COVID cases in the ACT, that was cancelled. Instead, it was another chance for us to have a good training session, which we did."
Even in professional competitions, the lockdown has had a visible impact on player fitness. But many of the Dirty Reds women have returned just as fit as they were beforehand.
And some, Mewburn added, are in even better shape.
"Most of the girls have kept to the training programs, which was pleasing to see," she said. "Some of the girls have actually dropped weight and are fitter than they were."
The biggest challenge in returning to play for the Goulburn girls was maintaining their skills.
Despite winning the ACT Rugby Women's Development League 10s last season, many players are still new to the sport. With this in mind, Mewburn and the team focused on developing and refining their skills.
"It took us a week to dust the cobwebs off, but we're week four post-COVID lockdown and the girls are really refining their techniques on scrums, lineouts, rucks, mauls," Mewburn said.
"The best thing we can do is get game time, that's when they do most of their learning."
This year, the Dirty Reds women have taken a step up in competition, with a move up to the 15s competition, simply known as the ACT Women's Premiership.
This will be both a change in format and quality of competition for Goulburn, something which Mewburn expects to be extremely valuable for her players.
"We need to accept the challenge of going up to play 15s," Mewburn said.
"We've got a good leadership group in the likes of Paige [Penning], Pearl [Rakete], and Sass [Cudaj]. They're a good leading force, and we've got some good talent coming through who have had some experience in the Brumbies programs.
"Goulburn girls are known to be small in size but big in heart, and our goal this year is to make the semi-finals. From there anything can happen. We just need to put our best foot forward this week."
Next Saturday's opening clash will take place against Wests, which is a best-case scenario for newcomers Goulburn.
Wests, who played in the same competition in 2019, went winless, and Mewburn knows Goulburn's status as an unknown quantity will be an advantage.
"We're an unknown, they don't have any expectations of us and they don't know where we are, which will play in our favour," she said.
The emergence of new COVID cases in Canberra has left the future of the 2020 season somewhat unsure. At present, the Brumbies have not made any statement regarding the new cases and their impact on the season.
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