Parkes star India Draper has sent her Group 10 rivals an ominous warning ahead of next weekend's rep round at Forbes, leading her Spacecats side to a resounding 12-0 win over the Magpies.
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Opening a bumper round of derby match-ups on the June long weekend at Parkes, the defending league tag champions proved too clinical for a Forbes side on the up in 2019 but out-classed on Sunday.
Draper was at the centre of that too, the scintillating fullback scoring a great try and setting up another in a dynamic display at the back.
The Spacecats scored two tries in the opening half, the first through Marites Woods on seven minutes in the south east corner before Draper sliced through the Magpies defence 15 minutes later to touch down in virtually the same spot.
Up 8-0 at the break, Draper put Peta Fagan over four minutes after half-time to extend the home side's lead to 12 points.
And despite Forbes' best attempts to get back into the contest the Spacecats' tagging proved too effective.
"It's always hard to play Forbes they're a tough team and we try and work as hard as we can to get on top of them," Draper said, before looking ahead to next Saturday's rep game.
I just try and work as hard as I can and play my game.
- Spacecats gun India Draper.
"There's a few Forbes girls I can't wait to play with. I hope we can beat (Group 10), I believe Parkes, Forbes, CYMS, we've all been dominant and I think having that combination will mean we'll do well this year."
As she'll be for Group 10 next week, the speedy No.1 was a target for the Magpies defence all game but catching Draper appears far easier said than done.
The young Parkes gun says she's not concerned about copping a bit of extra attention from opposition teams.
"I just try and work as hard as I can and play my game," she smiled.
The win was an important one for the Spacecats after being thumped 40-0 by another one of the Group 11 competition's best sides, Dubbo CYMS, a fortnight ago.
The 12-point win shores up a top two spot for Tyuanna Goolagong's side, while the Kristy Hartwig-coached Magpies remain in the top three despite the hit.
Hartwig said the Magpies really battled to get out of their own end and attacking from inside their half was nigh-on impossible.
"We just didn't follow the game plan today, and the girls know that. We'll learn from it. Parkes were ready to play," she said.
"We've been playing well and I was confident we'd match it with Parkes but we drifted away from our game plan so we'll go back to the drawing board and reset for next week."
The Magpies have dropped both games against the competition's top two sides - Parkes and CYMS - but Hartwig said the competitive nature of both matches is encouraging for her team.
The Magpies went down 14-10 to the Fishies in round four.
"We won't dwell on (the loss) but we'll certainly learn from it and I'm confident we'll be up in the top three at the end of the year," Hartwig added.
- PARKES SPACECATS 12 (India Draper, Peta Fagan, Marites Woods tries) def FORBES MAGPIES 0
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