Pirates women's 7s coach Anthony Barbara said Saturday's clash with Glen Innes was a good learning curve for his side with the finals looming.
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They only have Armidale to come next week with the bye in the final round.
On Saturday, at a freezing Walcha, they defeated the Elkettes 36-12 in the first game before letting a 17-5 lead slip in the second to share the points 17-all.
Unbeaten and relatively unchallenged so far this season, Barbara said it was exactly what they needed at this point of the season.
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"It was a really good earning curve for our girls and really highlighted a few areas we need to work on as a group," he said.
One of those is staying switched on "the whole time". The second game underlined that with Glen Innes scoring the try to draw level after the siren.
The first game they picked up pretty much where they left off against Tamworth the previous week.
"They executed well," he said.
"Any mistakes they looked to jump on and capitalised on. And they looked to play with width and move the ball to space."
But Glen Innes "are a handy side" - Barbara rates them one of the strongest sides in the competition - and showed that in the second game. He did too give some of the bench players a bit more time in the second half wanting to see where they were at.
They did welcome back Phoebe McLoughlin and Amy Raphael on Saturday, although the former only played limited minutes as she recovers from a broken toe, while Walcha local Shae Partridge made her debut in front of her home crowd.
Barbara spoke of a big focus on finishing the regular season off strongly with the minor premiership firmly within their grasp.
Ten points clear at the top of the Blues, they really only need a draw from one of their games to wrap up the silverware with the Blues also having the bye in the final round.
"(But) It's not going to be an easy task," Barbara said.
"They're second and have beaten every team at least one game."
On Saturday the Blues doubled up against St Alberts. After a 36-nil shut out, they won a tighter second game 26-17.
