With MARGIE MCDONALD NSW RUGBY LEAGUE
The Western Rams made it back-to-back Women’s Country Championships titles with a dominant nine-try 46-6 victory over the Northern Rivers Titans at Canberra’s GIO Stadium on Sunday.
Head coach Kevin Grimshaw said the focus by his players had been on backing up the premiership they won against North Coast Bulldogs (28-12) last year.
For Forbes' Maggie Townsend, one of a handful of players who's played with the women's rugby league side on and off since its inception, the win was a thrill.
"(The squad) were just really strong from one to 17 - there was no weakness anywhere," she said.
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Townsend credited the coach with getting the team - from across a wide geographic area - to buy in early.
"It was intense at parts with the training and the commitment but then the results speak for itself," she said.
"If you put that effort in you'll get the results."
The lock had thought the score would be a lot closer - especially in the wet conditions they faced - but the Rams got around the Titans' big mobile forward pack.
"It was a great win," Townsend said.
The coach was also pleased.
“It’s the journey I started two years ago to get the commitment out of them all – commitment to train and to turn up to games with the right attitude,” Grimshaw said.
“I know we scored nine tries but the thing I liked most was our defence.
“We tackled really well and that’s improved week-in, week-out.”
There was a sense of inevitability about the win when the Rams posted five tries in the first half to take a 24-0 lead into the break.
Anderson scored two, with hooker Xanthe Booth crafty around the ruck leading to tries for her skipper Rebecca Trethowan and prop Grace Blackmore after she scored one of her own in the 14th minute.
The Titans were doing a tonne of defence with the relentless go-forward of the Rams.
In the second half the scoreline blew out to 36-0 after Booth and Blackmore collected their second four-pointers.
But then the Titans luck turned when prop Taharni Roberts burst onto another Karri Williams pass from 10 metres out and dragged Rams defenders with her to score her team’s first points (36-6).
However, the rampaging Rams were not done yet. They scored their eighth try of the afternoon with a rehearsed left-edge move ending with winger Alahna Ryan spinning out of a tackle and over the white line (40-6).
Townsend continues a huge week of rugby league in the NSW Police competition this week.
She's playing with the Country South Steelers, representing a region which stretches from Wollongong to Parkes and Forbes.
The side has a solid history in the tournament - runners up on debut and making the semi-finals every year - but there are six very even sides in the competition this year.
"There's lots of new girls coming in," Townsend said.
"You don't know who's going to win or lose, which is the exciting part about it."
Teams contest a game a day so there's a very real possibility Townsend will play five games for the week, although in the back row rather than up front.
"I'm just trying to make the most of it because I'm not going to play club football this year, I've just got too many other commitments," Townsend said, explaining this will be the first time she doesn't line up for the local rugby union women's team at all.
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