Goannas defeated the Vipers 20-8 at Apex Oval on Sunday

A strong opening half helped the Goannas take a comfortable 20-8 win at Apex Oval on Sunday in round two of the Western Women's Rugby League.

Without coach Peta Powyer, CJ Smyth took over the mentoring role and felt the home side was brilliant in the opening part of the game.

"The first half was amazing, the girls got out of their own half and made 40 or 50 metres every opportunity," he said.

"That's something we spoke about at the start of the game.

"We had a couple of new players, Kaitlyn (Waldie) is a brand new player to the game, she'd never played league before so her confidence going forward was amazing.

"Our forward pack up the middle definitely killed it today, our defence in the first half was spot on, hence no points put on."

Vipers coach Scott Sullivan admitted he thought his side would have started the game off better than they did after an impressive end to their opening match.

"We lost our first game at Coonamble but we were a bit short on troops, the girls put in a pretty good in the second half so we came here with a pretty positive outlook," he said.

"To be honest the effort wasn't there today in those little areas but there are still some positives to take out of the game.

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"There were some good individual efforts but the desire to win as a team wasn't there which is a little disappointing."

It was an entertaining start to the match from both sides as neither team was afraid to throw the ball around early but penalties gave the Vipers easy passage downfield inside the opening 10 minutes.

However, the Goannas' defence was too good and eventually, they were able to wrestle back momentum with Maggie Townsend racing away to score the first try of the match.

Demi Wilson nailed the conversion from right in front and the Goannas looked to be on fire as Bec Smyth soon scored out wide.

Another successful kick had the hosts up 12-0 and both sides would fail to add to the scoreboard towards the end of the half, with errors giving neither team the edge.

Coming out of the break, Wilson unlocked her running game and went past several defenders to score before the Vipers got on the board.

Ella Barrett showed great strength to score the visitors' first try before Cheynoah Merchant crossed also as the Vipers trailed 16-8.

A late try to Smyth sealed the win for the Goannas who remain undefeated after their opening two matches.

Around the ruck, the Goannas were brilliant and Smyth had nothing but praise for all of his players.

"We got a bit lazy in the second half, Alahna Ryan and 'Cato' (Em Caton) were great," he said.

"'Cato' got thrown into fullback because Lakeisha Hull couldn't make it and she was brilliant in that position.

"We just created our own options out of nowhere with minimal training, the girls just turn up and do their thing.

"It makes work and if we get a little bit of training under our belt, we can start doing those set plays.

"That's only our second game but the girls go out there and do what they've got to do, they make it work."

Caton's move to fullback worked wonders and has now left the coaching staff with a tough decision to make for their next game but Smyth knows the Goannas star could fit anywhere in the starting 13.

"She's general a nine and loves playing nine but when I told her she was playing fullback her eyes lit up," he said.

"She didn't complain or worry, she was excited to play the role.

"There are so many girls in the team you could throw absolutely anywhere."

Sullivan felt his side lacked urgency early and believes they let themselves down without the ball.

"We just had no line speed in the middle with our defence," he said.

"Our edges defended well but there was no line speed in the middle, with our edges pushing up it forced them to go through our middle which they did well.

"They won the ruck, they had quick play the balls and we were just too slow with ours.

"There were little technical areas that they beat us in.

"They were mad on the strips today, they caught us on the hop there."

GOANNAS 20 (Bec Smyth 2, Maggie Townsend, Demi Wilson tries; Wilson, Emma Teale conversions) defeated VIPERS 8 (Ella Barrett, Cheynoah Merchant tries)

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