The Cobar Roosterettes were narrowly beaten 22-14 in Round 1 of the Christie & Hood Castlereagh League Tag competition at Tom Knight Memorial Oval on Saturday.
Despite the loss, Roosterettes coach, Bianka Jacobson, said she was more than happy with her side’s performance.
“Coonabarabran beat us 16-0 two weeks ago in the grand final of the knockout competition so this is a very big improvement,” Jacobson said.
“Going into this game we had to focus on controlling their ball movement across the field and we knew they would hit the line at pace.”
Jacobson said her side on Saturday, which contained six new players on debut, did everything she asked of them.
“We started really well, and implemented what we had been practising in training.
“We were patient, had a great defensive line and we scored first, which was positive.”
Roosterettes seasoned player Jenna Fullagar opened Cobar’s scoring early in the match with a try under the posts which made for a simple conversion for Brianna Watson.
Shortly after the Unicorns replied with their own try, which wasn’t however converted and Cobar held on to a narrow lead, 6-4.
Renee Aumua led a high tagging workrate in the centres with Madasan Taylor, playing at fullback, also kept busy in defence.
Taylor was responsible for a number of try saving tags throughout the match.
Just before half time, the visitors snatched the lead with another unconverted try to go into the sheds ahead 8-6 at half time.
Soon after the re-start, the Unicorns pounced to record a converted try and stretch out their lead to eight points.
A career first try for Abby Carswell on debut put the Roosterettes back in the game and soon after Taylor touched down for a try after receiving a well-timed pass from playmaker Tyler Chiswick in the centres.
Taylor’s try levelled the scores at 14-all.
A runaway try early in the second half and another try in the final minute of the game sealed the win for the Coonabarabran girls.
“In the end Coona were too good for us, it was their fitness and pace that outdid us,” Jacobson said.
