Queanbeyan locals were given a treat on Saturday afternoon, as the Brumbies women romped to a 30-5 defeat of the Melbourne Rebels at Seiffert Oval.
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The opening round of the 2021 Super W season was expected to be a competitive affair, and for the first 20 minutes of the match, it was.
The Rebels controlled the pace and direction of play, and set up camp in the Brumbies' defensive half.
After several failed attempts to score, however, the momentum swung sharply back they way of the home team, culminating with an Ella Ryan penalty goal to open the scoring.
"Once we got ourselves in our own half, we turned it on a bit," Brumbies forward Pearl Rakete said.
"We've been training since January, and we've been executing. We had a good training session last need, everything was on point. All we needed was a little bit of confidence, to get a little bit closer to the line, and we knew we could execute."
Five minutes later, Zali Waihape-Andrews crossed for the first try of the match, which was successfully converted by Ryan to put the Brumbies up 10-0.
From that point, the Brumbies steered the flow of play and, except for a brief lapse in the second half in which the Rebels scored their only try of the game, attacked with relative impunity.
The crowd was uproarious when the Brumbies crossed for a final try after the final horn, and Rakete was pleased with their performance.
"I reckon that was pretty good," she said.
"A couple of weeks ago, we played against the police force and we did beat them, but I feel like this was a step above. We executed everything we've been training.
"We had a lot of debutants on, and I think that's part of the reason why it took us a while to warm up, but once we did, they were on fire."
One such debutant, Ash Fernandez, was "super nervous" while she waited to come off the bench, but felt much more at ease once she stepped on the field in the second half.
She was pleased both personally and on behalf of the team for their performance, but also praised the Rebels for the fight they showed after COVID complicated their preparations.
"They're definitely a hard team to beat," Fernandez said.
"They've unfortunately had a lot of trouble with COVID, so I think it's amazing that they've been able to come here and have that hit-out. They played so well, such a hard team to verse."
From here, the Brumbies travel to Coffs Harbour, where the rest of the Super W season will be played.
Their next clash is against the Presidents XV on Sunday, June 27 from 11am.
