As Pirates captain Shae Partridge caught her breath and cooled down after an exhausting Central North women's elimination final at a very warm Moree on Saturday, her attention turned to her next finals assignment.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
But it wasn't their preliminary final in two weeks time.
No Partridge was doing it all again on Sunday, helping out her local Walcha/Uralla Jillaroos league tag side in the Group 19 reserve grade grand final.
On Saturday she scored a double as Pirates survived a massive test from Scone to keep their premiership defence alive.
Prevailing 31-12 in the end, they trailed 7-nil at half-time, after a late try to Dom Carter, and were on the back foot for a lot of the first half, only some great defence on their line preventing them from being behind my more.
"It was really tough," Partridge said.
She was in that speaking not only about the Brumbies, who they knew were going to be tough, but the conditions. It was almost stifling and both sides visibly struggled at times.
The spark for Pirates came through a moment of individual brilliance from Jayda Simpson.
Two minutes into the second half and looking to be going nowhere as they tried to clear the ball from their deep in their half, the pocket rocket spotted a small hole and put the foot down and raced away 70m to score.
Not long after Partridge scooped the ball up from the back of the ruck and used her pace to put Pirates in front.
Starting to find their groove by then, Jacinta Cooper extended their lead right on the final break after Rosie Ferguson sent Partridge away down the right touch. It was a great chase from the Brumbies to bring her down but she was able to pop the pass to Cooper in support.
Making it 17-7 heading into the final quarter you sensed the momentum had started to turn, and when Pirates young gun Tomi Gavin sold the dummy and went straight through to score under the posts the premiers looked home.
"Once we got our stuff together we ended up flowing a bit more," Partridge said.
She said Simpson's try was a big lift.
"We just needed a little start, we also just needed the ball in our hands," she said.
"That whole first half we were defending and when we did get the ball we made little mistakes like dropped balls in our own 10.
"But once we had it and once we we got set to attack and went flat it was a lot better."
