Pirates pounce on Red Devils in women’s fixture

The Red Devils women came crashing back to earth last Saturday, as they fell to a hefty 56-19 defeat against the Tamworth Pirates in Central North Rugby Union (CNRU) action at Gunnedah Rugby Club.

Following a 54-0 victory against an inexperienced Quirindi outfit in round one a week earlier, the Red Devils were outplayed by the club which finished runner-up last year.

Last Saturday’s result was even more comprehensive than last year’s preliminary final on Gunnedah soil, which the Tamworth team won 31-12.

The Pirates were skilful and well-drilled last Saturday, while Gunnedah’s defence looked brittle for much of the time as the Red Devils conceded 10 tries and scored only three.

Had the Pirates landed more than three of 10 conversion attempts, their total would have been closer to 70 points.

The Red Devils began brightly with a converted try to Sienna Burr in the first few minutes, before a converted try each to Sophie McCulloch and Kate Ferguson gave the Pirates a 14-7 lead at the 10-minute mark.

Jaymee Pyne, Tomi Gavin and Caitlin Tongue scored a try each in the second quarter to help the Pirates to a 31-7 half-time lead, while the visitors also made some mistakes.

Gavin scored the first try of the second half, before the following five-pointer came when Lara de Jong penetrated some defence that was almost non-existent.

Gunnedah’s Elsie Hunt veered right from a scrum as the Red Devils had a rare scoring opportunity, but she was taken into touch.

Kate O’Donnell powered away to score a fine try for Gunnedah, despite a desperate tackle by de Jong from behind.

Pirates player Lauren Daye was sent off for foul play, before Red Devils skipper Madisan Rogers broke away to score at the posts.

A scoreline of 41-19 looked a bit better than 41-7 for the Red Devils, only for the Pirates to regain their mojo when Tongue scored again.

When the Pirates turned the ball to the right to enable Kaecia Beattie to scoot away for the next try, Gunnedah’s Lucy Bomford gave a determined chase to ensure the goal-kick would be from wide out.

De Jong had the final say when she broke away from a number of would-be tacklers in the final 15 seconds.

O’Donnell, Rogers, and Malia Mikaele were the pick of the players in the beaten team.

Red Devils assistant coach Ash Gough said, “The game didn’t fail to surprise us with some great individual efforts from the Gunnedah women against the Pirates team.

“However, our efforts which had been building at training were not consistent with our efforts we produced on the day.

“We will be going back to (the) drawing board after the loss and attempt to build on a number of areas to further assist our progression through the year.”

This Saturday the Red Devils head to Narrabri to contest reigning three-time premiers the Blue Boars, who crushed Quirindi 66-5 last Saturday after downing Moree 31-5 a week earlier.