Armidale women's coach Luke Stephen has described Saturday's thrilling two-point win over Tamworth as "a massive result" for the side.
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The 22-20 victory was a big turnaround from the 84-5 thrashing they were on the end of in the corresponding game last season and even the 46-5 touch-up they received in their first round meeting.
"We obviously set ourselves a goal to improve and the girls have been improving week-on-week, year-on-year," Stephen said.
Saturday's win was their second straight, after beating Robb 29-22 the previous week.
Stephen said he "couldn't be prouder", noting that they played the whole game without any subs.
They set the tone in the opening minutes, scoring in only the second minute of the game with what he labelled the best team try they've scored this season. They added a second a few minutes later to lead 12-nil after seven minutes.
"We were able to move Tamworth around with some really good ball movement, and that then enabled the girls to have a bit of confidence," he said.
"We weren't playing behind the eight ball the whole game."
The home side got on the board in the final seconds of the first quarter through captain Ellie Hannaford to make it 12-7 at the first break.
The second quarter followed a similar pattern with Hannah Edwards scoring a great runaway try for the Blues inside the first couple of minutes, and the Magpies having all the attack late in the quarter and scoring a late try to close back within seven at half-time.
It was much the same in the third quarter; again the Blues were the first to post points and again the Magpies crossed in the final seconds to trail by a converted try going into the final quarter.
Lauren Harbison then bucked the trend of the game, scoring in the first minute of the quarter to give the Magpies the opportunity to level. But the conversion was unsuccessful leaving the score 22-20.
The game was stopped with three or four minutes to go after an injury to one of the Blues players.
Stephen said it was unfortunate, but fortunately she was okay.
"At that time I think Hannah Edwards had come across to make a great cover tackle to spill the ball when Tamworth looked like scoring for all money," he said.
It was that kind of spirited defence that underpinned the result and was for Stephen one of the most pleasing aspects of the Blues' performance.
Also of note was that Kristin Willis scored her first-ever try for the club. She topped that off by also picking up the players' player and best and fairest accolades.
For the Magpies it was a case of what could have been had they started better, and had the game played out to the end.
They were building some good momentum and co-coach Ben Watts has no doubt they could have gone on to win the game.
"But the safety of the players, your team and others, is paramount," he said.
"You've got to look after everyone."
But, ultimately it was their slow starts that hurt them, particularly that first quarter.
Watts spoke about possibly being a bit complacent after their good first round win.
"[But] As the game went on our girls worked things out a bit more and sort of got the ball rolling," he said.
They were missing a few of their key forwards, which meant the forwards they did have had to play a lot of minutes in what were some warm conditions.
"Paige Leonard played a full game so full credit to her," he said.
In the other games Barbarians moved to the top of the table with a 26-17 win over Albies while Glen Innes defeated Robb 49-5.
