Rugby sevens
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THE fast and experienced Country team proved way too slick for their City counterparts in the women's rugby sevens curtain-raiser on Saturday night.
The performance dazzled the strong crowd, as Country ran away with a 29-10 win.
Bringing the team together after two training runs, coach Bart Challacombe was proud of the quality of the performance.
"I think it was a pretty good game," Challacombe said.
"It was good running rugby, and the girls had a ball and enjoyed it.
"Especially being the main game before the Brumbies game is really exciting."
City started off strong with a long-range try to Sarah Hogan but the Country team quickly hit back when Shannon Pike took an intercept and found her way to the try line.
Monique Higgins converted from close to the sideline to put her team in front, and Country extended its lead when Cecilia Smith dived over in the corner.
Remi Wilton put the Country side further ahead just before half-time when she took the ball out of the scrum on half-way before pushing past two defenders to score again. Kirra Hallam hit back with City's second long-range effort to reduce the margin to a converted try just before half-time.
Country continued to find plenty of space out wide as Pike crossed for her second try of the match, when she sliced through the City defensive line before Lele Katoa added more to Country's tally.
Challacombe came in expecting the City team to be strong through the forwards, but was happy with how his team competed in the ruck.
"I was confident we could beat them out wide, but our scrum pushed them off the ball a couple of times and expected them to be a bit more dominant at the break down," Challacombe said.
"They were, but I thought we did very good."
Challacombe was thrilled to hold City scoreless in the second half and thought the team's defence was the deciding factor.