The Queensland Women have put in a dominant 42-5 performance against the Brumbies for their first win in the Buildcorp Super W competition at GIO Stadium in Canberra.
The Reds began the match in solid fashion scoring two penalty goals off the boot of Lavinia Gould in the first 15 minutes.
The Brumbies however struck back quickly with a diving try from Peta Cox – the first major score of the match - which closed the gap to just one point.
With an outstanding passage of play that went end-to-end in the 30th minute involving some strong passing by Treherne and Cramer, Lavinia Gould pulled off what was an impressive team try to extend the lead to eight points, 13-5 where the score remained at the half-time break.
Gould contributed well on the scoreboard in the first half showing how central she is to the Brumbies game plan.
In a contrast to the round one matches, this contest was not one-way traffic with the Brumbies challenging Queensland all the way through the experience of key forwards Milward and Burrows giving the hosts strength in attack.
Queensland made an early statement in the second half through a try by young star Lefau-Fakaosilea extending their lead to 18-5.
Great offloading and teamwork across the park by Queensland led to a third try as Liz Patu crashed over under some hefty tackle pressure.
Their confidence was high as the second half progressed and the Brumbies struggled to keep up the pressure on the visitors.
Queensland was not only strong in its attacking game, getting a lot of time in the opposition half, but solid at the breakdown when in defence.
Brumbies skipper Shellie Milward was sin-binned in the 55th minute not helping her team’s cause.
A short time later, Queensland capitalised on the Brumbies being a player down with a brilliant try to Ivania Wong in the corner.
Despite the Brumbies tackler crashing her through the corner flag, the grounding was good and the visitors moved to a 28-5 lead.
Adding to the Brumbies pain, with just over 10 minutes left in the game, captain Milward was again pinged by the referee and with a second yellow card and so was off with a red for an intercept infringement.
In the 74th minute, Sarah Riordan made a powerful run to the line going through three defenders to score her team’s fifth try of the game, the fourth of the second half, and shut the door on the Brumbies hopes.
On the heels of that, the 17-year-old star of the Brisbane Tens, Lefau-Fakaosilea, also broke through the tiring defence and ran in for a double for the day and push the score out to 42-5 following a successful conversion.
As the match headed to its close the Brumbies were showing signs of fatigue in this their first Super W run.
For the victors, Sammy Treherne’s performance was impressive as she keeps going up a gear with each match she plays.
The theme of the day for Queensland seemed to be flowing rugby with strong offloads across the park, and particularly putting all the important numbers on the stats sheet in a dominant second half.
On what was a warm day, both teams felt the effects of the heat with the Brumbies assisted on field by star waterboy David Pocock.
RESULT
Queensland Women 42
Tries: Lefau-Fakaosilea (2), Gould, Patu, Riordan, Wong.
Cons: Gould (2), Treherne
Pens: Gould (2)
Brumbies Women 5
Tries: Cox
Cons: 0
Pens: 0
