Up against the might of the Uni Norths Owls at Poidevin Oval on Saturday, the Goulburn Dirty Reds women put up a resilient display which earned the respect of the visiting side.
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The Owls, who are number one on the Canberra Premier Women's 15s competition ladder by some distance, have made a habit of steamrolling teams with blitzkriegs in the opening minutes of the match.
Their match against Goulburn yesterday began in much the same fashion, with an early surge which secured 17 points in less than 15 minutes.
"They've been putting points on teams for fun, just pumping teams for fun," Dirty Reds co-coach, Peter Oliver, said.
"They came out very strongly, and that's what they've done in the past. They blew Royals completely off the park when they played against them.
"To be honest, we were a real danger of that happening to us."
Lacking some key defensive players, such as Pearl Rakete, Paige Penning, Elly Hazelton, and Kelsey Betts, Goulburn struggled to rein in their opponents' offense.
Similarly, the Owls were missing a number of their best due to Brumbies duties, but their reserves still possessed the size that Goulburn sorely lacked.
The Dirty Reds, however, weathered the storm and fought back valiantly. After the Owls took advantage of early lapses in defence, the home side resolved to make scoring harder, and suddenly the flow of play changed.
On a wet, muddy surface, Goulburn took control and scored a try of its own shortly before half time.
At the break, the score was 17-7 in favour of Uni Norths, but the Dirty Reds were in the process of mounting a stirring rearguard.
"The effort and the attitude was spot on," Oliver said.
"Defence is all about attitude, and on a wet, muddy, cold day like this, to keep the team that's on top of the ladder effectively scoreless for most of the second half, that's all attitude."
A penalty goal in the opening minutes of the second half took the Dirty Reds to within one try of Uni Norths' lead, and as they sat camped in the attacking half, the leveler felt imminent.
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But it never came.
Goulburn made several attempts on the Owls' tryline, but ill-timed penalties, ball-handling errors, or superb defence blunted the attacks.
The match remained deadlocked until the final minute, when the Owls broke through the Dirty Reds' line for one last try.
The 24-10 scoreline belied a much closer game, and one in which Goulburn controlled momentum for the majority of the match.
However, the inability to close out good plays cost the Dirty Reds, which is a dilemma Oliver intends to study more closely.
"We've got a number of players who've got a lot of skill, and we've got a lot of players who are still improving every game," he said.
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"It's a matter of being smarter about when they choose to use that skill and when you actually just tuck the ball, take the hit, recycle the ball and get ready for the next phase.
"There were a couple of times today we were guilty of pushing that final pass when we shouldn't have, and that comes back to rugby smarts. We'll review the tape and see what we can do."
At third on the ladder, the Dirty Reds women will next have a chance to improve their standing against the Tuggeranong Viqueens this Saturday, July 3, from 1.30pm at Viking Park.
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