The Harvey Norman Women’s Premiership Sharks have continued their hot start to the 2021 season, notching up their second win and their second half century of points scored so far this year with a 58-0 thumping of the Glebe Dirty Reds.
In a match played at Wentworth Park on Sunday, the Dirty Reds held on early but once Corban McGregor opened the scoring in the eighth minute the floodgates opened, five more tries before the half time break, all converted by Maddie Studdon who had an outstanding day with the boot, seeing the Sharks cruise to a 36-0 lead.
From there the Sharks continued to control and dominate their opponents in closing out the win, with Coach Tony Herman obviously satisfied by the attacking performance but equally pleased to have kept Glebe scoreless.
“I thought it was really important for us to keep them to zero,” Herman said. “The girls worked really hard in defence, when they started coming off the back fence at us and started to win the ruck, we learnt how to wrestle back momentum and that allowed us to keep them to zero.”
However, while the defensive effort was near flawless, the Sharks shone with ball in hand, scoring 10 tries in the victory.
“We presented some really good shapes, stuck to our processes the majority of the time, although we did get a little bit excited at times,” Herman continued.
As for his most dominant performers, Herman pointed out his hooker Quincy Dodd, halves Studdon and McGregor and fullback Tiana Penitani for special praise.
“Our 9 Quincy recognised the ruck speed when we won the tackle and our halves and out the back our fullback, I thought our spine was really good.
“The girls are starting to learn and how to play together and form some combinations, which is important because we’re going to play some better teams,” Herman added.
As for the ‘better teams’ to which he refers, that looks likely to start with their next opponent when they play North Sydney, the team which eliminated the Sharks from the HNWP title race last season, with the Bears coming into the contest on the back of a win and a loss to start their 2021 campaign.
The Sharks scored a 54-6 win over Souths in round one before all round two matches were postponed due to the wet weekend.
The Sharks girls now have a bye this week, followed by their clash with the Bears on Sunday, April 11, with that game set down for a 12noon kick off at North Sydney Oval.
SHARKS 58
Leianne Tufuga 2, Talei Holmes 2, Corban McGregor, Kennedy Cherrington, Maddie Studdon, Quincy Dodd, Andie Robinson, Kaarla Cowan tries, Studdon 9 goals from 10 attempts
Beat
GLEBE 0
