Gunnedah women’s coach John Hickey isn’t measuring his sides success by results but rather their progression.
Hence one of the highlights for him from Saturday’s clashes against Scone was the performance of Samantha Webster.
He noted that she made a big improvement in her defence.
She also scored one of the Red Devils five tries in their 29-10 win in Game 2.
Websters efforts were equally recognised by her peers with Webster picking up the players player award for the day.
Fiona Laurie gave the Red Devils a 12-5 lead at half-time in the second game with an 80m burst after a great break from inside centre Peta Lawrence.
Laurie then put on a good step to beat the Brumbies winger and extend the home sides lead early in the second half.
The visitors found some space on the short side to hit back, but from the kick-off the Red Devils spun it wide from deep within their half and fullback Bec Smyth got on the outside of the defence to run away 60m to score.
They then put the exclamation point on the win with a try on full-time from a penalty quick tap.
It gave the Red Devils “two excellent wins” for the day after getting up in the first game 22-14.
“Once again the thing with us is it’s a progression,” Hickey said.
“Scone were really good. They were stronger than the last time we played them.”
“They were very aggressive in defence.”
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He again heralded his sides team-work.
“The upside was all my girls, especially the girls off the bench, did really well and played a really good role,” he said.
“The ability to work as a team is a catalyst for where we are.”
That is in fourth, with the double seeing them leapfrog the Brumbies, who they incidentally picked up their first win of the season against.
Along with their team-work Hickey was also particularly impressed with their defence.
“I think the girls defended really well,” he said.
They don’t, by choice, do full-on defence at training but had someone come in during the week and do a bit of work with them and talk to them about how to defend and how to tackle.
Hickey added that the girls that have been the mainstays of the team “since the word go” are running the side like professionals.
