Central North Rugby Round 5: Pirates women double up against Gunnedah

The reigning New England premiers are four-from-four in this year's Central North competition after accounting for 2019 grand final combatants Gunnedah in both their games on Saturday.

After winning the first game 24-7 they then withstood a second half surge from the home side in the second game to post a 22-10 win.

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It follows a clean sweep against Narrabri two weeks ago.

Barbara has liked what he has seen from them so far and believes they have "the nucleus of a good squad".

They are still a bit raw, with probably 10 of the squad either playing their first season of women's rugby or new to the club or rugby.

"The more games they play the better they're going to be," he said.

"But I was very pleased with what we are trying to instill with them, which is move the ball to space, back up, try and avoid contact where you can and work hard for each other."

He believes the Red Devils will be "a real threat" at the back of the season and thought it was good for his side to be tested like they were in that second game.

"It was good for the girls to get that experience and learn that 7s is a game of momentum," he said.

Pleasingly when the momentum did swing they "stuck in the fight".

"There's still a lot of things we can work on," Barbara said.

"I thought our defence was poor in sections of the game but that's just a bit of a lapse of concentration. But the effort was there."

He thought Rosie Ferguson really stepped up as captain and led from the front. Shae Partridge was also good on the wing.

"She scored some good finishing tries, which is what 7s is all about," he said.

He said it will probably take four-six weeks of playing repetitive games for the side to really gel and show their true potential. Unfortunately that regularity of games isn't something they have at the moment.

With only five clubs currently fielding a women's 7s team it means games are sporadic.

Barbara understands there are some plans to possibly hold some gala days in the second round.

"We definitely need that to get the girls interested and get them minutes," he said.

"Obviously the way they learn is playing more rugby."

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