Can NSW Women be stopped from taking out the inaugural Buildcorp Super W competition after their dominant performance against Western Force Women in Sydney?
NSW coach Rob Baumann was pleased with the form shown by his team as they secured the 32-10 win over the Force at Allianz Stadium.
“It was a tough day, the opposition was good and the weather wasn’t kind to us, but the girls certainly dug deep,” Baumann said.
A half-time chat about composure was needed to get the game plan back on track and he was pleased with the effort shown as a result.
“I spoke to them about getting away from our structure.
“They certainly changed their attitude, consolidating the slender half-time lead and adding points at the back end of the second half."
Morgan, Lafai, and Kaiwai all caught the coach’s eye with Shanice Parker a stand out, but ultimately he credits the win to a great team effort.
Shanice Parker agrees – it was all about the teamwork.
“I feel like we came together in this second game and moving forward now we’re really working well as a team,” Parker said.
Western Force coach Sebastian Delport put his team’s turn of fortune from last week’s big win down to not following the processes they have been trying to adopt in the their game plan.
“I think we need to get clarity on the style of game we want to play,” Delport said.
“We’ve been trying to evolve the way that we approach the game since the start of the program and we showcased that really well last week.
“Now it’s a case of taking the learnings from this week about where we are on that journey and moving that forward to the Queensland game.”
The Force will take on Queensland Women in a fortnight after a bye next week.
For NSW, Baumann knows they have one more hurdle to get over next week against the Brumbies before they can take stock.
“I’ve said to the girls our first three games are going to be pretty tough,” Baumann said.
“So we’ll get this block out of the way, have a bit of a break, then reload to have a solid match against the Rebels in the last round.”
After two rounds the progress of the Super W competition is looking promising.
Parker believes the competition underlines the importance of the pathway and opportunities being created for young players.
“It’s really good because sevens has their pathways into the national program and now XVs has an opportunity to get into that Wallaroos squad.
“It’s really opened up a lot of options for all the young girls like me coming through.”
