It’s hard to believe the Group 11 under 18s women’s side has played just three matches together.
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The Amy Townsend-coached outfit heads into this weekend’s fourth round clash against Group 10 at Parkes after three successive dominant victories in the Western Women’s Rugby League Championship nines competition.
“It’s phenomenal,” Townsend said of her side.
“There’s some very talented girls in that side and some probably should be playing in the Tarsha Gale Cup under 18s competition in Sydney, that’s how talented they are.
“The best thing is, though, they know they’re not perfect. They just want to soak it all in.
“Their best quality is that they play as a unit on the field.”
After beating Group 10 36-6 in the opening game of the competition, Group 11 downed Castlereagh/Barwon 40-16.
Then, last weekend, the talented junior outfit brushed aside the previously undefeated Woodbridge Cup, 46-0.
“The best thing was keeping them scoreless,” Townsend said.
“The 46 points I can take or leave but but keeping them scoreless, the girls just kept turning up and putting their body on the line.”
Townsend has given her side something to work on from week-to-week.
The first round was all about backing up, then against Castlereagh the focus turned to keeping rival players on the floor during a tackle.
After seeing Castlereagh get a few offloads away in that game, Townsend urged her side to wrap up the ball last week and the coach was delighted to see Woodbridge Cup fail to offload the ball once.
While confessing her side is “pretty perfect”, Townsend isn’t letting the young guns rest on their laurels.
“We can’t get complacent,” she said.
“We’ve got to keep that unity and keep working together because there is going to be a game where we are challenged.
“Every team is improving and realising this isn’t league tag or OzTag. There’s more contact now and Group 10 will be better, definitely.”
Something that has benefited Group 11 is the fact under 18s have had to back up due to the senior outfit being short at times.
Nyngan’s Alahna Ryan was named player of the match in seniors last week after backing up while Kiara Singh and Alex Couley also got through plenty of minutes.
Group 11 takes on Group 10 from 11am at Parkes’ Pioneer Oval on Saturday.