The St.George Queensland Reds have claimed a convincing win in Western Australia to kick-off their Buildcorp Super W campaign, dominating the Rugby WA Women from start to finish to claim an 80-5 win.
Queensland ran in twelve tries, including hat-tricks to Liz Patu and Maraea Tupai, while five players – Courtney Hodder, Natassja Purontakanen, Okeroa Manihera, Lesa Kaleti Mataafa and Tupai – made their Queensland debuts in the win.
Head coach Moana Virtue said: “Today was a great team effort against a young Rugby WA side, who will continue to grow and get better.
“We were really pleased with our combinations and the way we played across the park today.
“Our forwards laid the platform for us around the field and at set-piece time. They got us over the advantage line and gave our backs space and front-foot ball to work with.
“It was really pleasing to see the five girls’ debut, all of them were rewarded for their great work during pre-season and injected themselves well throughout the game.”
The Reds had the home team on the back-foot in the first minute of play, with Patu scoring to give her side an early lead.
Shannon Mato drove between two defenders to put the score out to 12-nil in the sixth-minute, before Hodder had her first five-pointer in maroon, the youngster showing her lightning pace off a scrum to score and put the Queensland advantage out to 19-nil in the 16th minute.
Langley Sesega was shown a yellow-card at the 25-minute mark, reducing the home-side to 14 women, and Averyl Mitchell quickly capitalised scoring a rolling-maul try, which Lori Cramer converted to give Queensland a 28-nil lead after the first half hour of play.
Patu found the line twice in the final ten minutes of the half, the pair of tries giving the ramping prop a hat-trick of tries within the opening 40 minutes.
Claiming just under 70% of possession throughout the first 40-minutes, the score line reflected Queensland’s dominance as the side went to the sheds with a 40-nil lead.
Debutant Tupai picked up where Queensland left off in the first-half when she was injected into the game from the bench, scoring three tries in 20-minutes to cap a memorable debut in maroon.
Desperate goal line defence steadied the flow of Reds tries, but it wasn’t enough to keep Mataafa out as she crossed for her first try in the 65th minute.
Ivy Kaleta and Hodder iced the win for Queensland in the final ten minutes, both crossing for five-pointers, before the home side robbed the Queenslanders of their clean sheet, finding the line after the siren to take the the full-time score to 80-5.
Queensland will host the Melbourne Rebels at Suncorp Stadium in Round 3 of Super W on Saturday February 29 at 3:35PM AEST.
“The Rebels are the dark horses of the competition. They’ve improved tenfold since last season and with the strength of their leaders, are really building belief in their side,” said Virtue.
“It’s a great chance to play at Suncorp Stadium next week and we can’t wait to see as many Queensland fans there as possible.”The match is the first of a double header, with the men’s side taking on the Sharks following the Super W clash. Tickets available via http://bit.ly/32hiPV6.
