GROUP players dominated the North Coast women’s league tag side to play Central Coast in the opening round of the Country Championships at Macksville on Saturday May 5.
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This followed Group Three’s 32-0 shutout of Group Two in the representative match at Wingham.
Eleven Group Three players made the 16 strong squad to be coached by Lyn Eason from Tuncurry.
They are Larissa Ward (Port City), Nakita Binge (Port City), Talara Morris (Forster-Tuncurry), Nat Hurrell (Wauchope), Talisa Eason (Old Bar), Lisa Bullivant (Forster-Tuncurry), Brittany McKay (Port City), Jasmine Wilbow (Port City), Brooke Murray (Taree City), Dianne Lawrence (Port City) and Jony Hemmingway (Wingham).
Group Two representatives are Makayla Hoskins (Sawtell), Gretta Smith (Sawtell), Leyley Holten (Coffs Harbour), Jakaya Hart (Coffs Harbour) and Hannah White (Sawtell).
In truth the entire Group Three team wouldn’t have been out of place in the North Coast squad, such was their dominance of Group Two. They looked yards faster and far better organised than their northern opponents. The contest was a good as over at halftime when Group Three led 24-0. Group Two rarely ventured into Group Two’s territory in the opening stanza. A mistake from the kickoff saw Group Three mount pressure and a Nikita Binge kick was accepted from Kayla Edwards from Wingham to set the tone for the game. Binge bamboozled the defence in a weaving 40 metre run to post Group Three’s second while Lisa Bullivant, Larissa Ward and Rebecca Eason all added first half tries. Dianne Lawrence kicked to conversions.
Group Two, aided by a string of penalties in the second half, put Group Three’s defence under more pressure, but they were unable to break their duck. They did keep Group Three to two tries, scored by Jasmine Wilbow and Georgina Williams.
“You have to be pleased with that,’’ coach Eason said at fulltime.
“We started well and our defence was outstanding all game.’’
Eason agreed Group Three weren’t as strong in the second half.
“I guess having a big lead we got a bit complacent, but it was still a great effort.’’
Eason admitted coaching had its taxing moments as she worked to ensure every player had game time.
“I was trying to make sure that every player got on there and had a fair go,’’ she said.
“But we had good quality players, so we didn’t lose anything when we made replacements.’’