The Goulburn Dirty Reds' second pre-season trial against the Queanbeyan Whites on Saturday was a full-blooded affair, in which both sides were lucky to make it through unscathed.
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The Dirty Reds enjoyed a productive match in their first trial against Crookwell on March 13, but up against a physically larger Whites outfit at Poidevin Oval yesterday, they faced a more bruising challenge.
The match was played in thirds, and the teams changed ends at each interval. Goulburn began the game running downhill, and started well with two tries in the first period.
"It was pretty much a tale of three thirds," Dirty Reds co-coach Ash Mewburn said.
"In the first third, we were attacking, everything was going our way, we were running downhill and had all the momentum.
"Everything that we'd been doing at training, we brought to the field.
"Then everything changed in the second third. The Whites came out more aggressive, we lost our discipline, and then we started getting frustrated with ourselves."
After gaining a 12-0 lead at the first break, Goulburn struggled to fend off Queanbeyan in the second period and often lost possession by way of simple errors.
These frustrations were compounded by two nasty injury breaks for the Dirty Reds' Paige Penning and Elly Hazelton. Penning copped a blow to the head, and was forced to leave the field for a brief medical assessment, in which she showed no sign of serious harm. Shortly afterwards, Hazelton was tackled and her cheek - which she broke early in the 2020 season - collided with the shoulder of one of the Whites players. Hazelton was panicked at first, believing she had re-broken the cheekbone, but thankfully no damage appeared to have been done and she continued playing, which drew cheers from the crowd.
"I think they were just stunned," Mewburn said.
"With the initial impact, they thought the worst straight away, but after they saw the medics, they shook it off and it was just a good, hard contact."
The Whites, meanwhile, gained confidence quickly and were more decisive in their tackling and relentless in their offense.
Despite this visible change in attitude, the Dirty Reds' defence was immaculate and the visitors were unable to score in the second period, while Goulburn extended its lead with another try.
When the third period began, the Dirty Reds once again had the run of play and added two more tries to their tally, both courtesy of Hazelton.
The match finished with the home team up 29-0, and an upbeat Mewburn walked off the field after her first 15s game since giving birth in mid-2020 with a lot to be happy about.
"With the season expected to get underway on April 17, Mewburn was pleased that her side had survived a thoroughly challenging match.
"They've got size, the Queanbeyan Whites are known for size even with their men's teams," she said.
"Their women's teams are big, but even though us country girls are small, we hit just as hard."
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