Wagga teenager Biola Dawa stands on the cusp of a starting berth in the Brumbies’ Super W season opener after producing a breakout performance against the Melbourne Rebels.
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Having endured a 67-point thrashing at the hands of NSW Waratahs in their first pre-season trial, Dawa’s Brumbies emerged a different side on Saturday and comfortably beat their southern rivals to the tune of 19-5.
“I started against NSW and against the Rebels and (this win) was such a good turnaround from the girls,” Dawa said.
“I think that Tahs loss left a scar and we actually got the whole group together afterwards to have a talk about it to, you know, get all our emotions out there on the table.
“We spoke about the things that bothered us (in their trial loss) and it was really good to have that discussion and not bottle it up – it’s definitely made a difference and we played much better on Saturday.”
It took little more than 10 minutes for Dawa to make her presence felt against the Rebels with the winger converting a well-worked set piece move in the far right corner to open the scoring.
The Brumbies scored again through Grace Kemp but the Rebels fought back in the second half, leaving the score at 12-5 with 10 minutes to play.
A yellow card threatened to derail the Brumbies’ chances but solid defence and a last-gasp double for Kemp sealed the result in front of a small but appreciative crowd at Greenfield Park.
“I think we stuck to our gameplan a lot more as well, which really helped,” Dawa said.
“We didn’t do that at all against NSW and our defence was much better as well.”
The 18-year-old was selected alongside Ag College star Harriet Elleman last month paid tribute to the intense training environment at Brumbies HQ, admitting it was a step above age-group and Southern Inland.
“There’s a lot of conditioning and set piece practice at training, but I think the biggest difference is how training is timed – we have a set amount of time for each drill and you’ve got to be mentally switched on to swap between everything and stay focused.”
With two trial starts under her belt, Dawa is well and truly in the frame for selection when the Brumbies kick off their campaign against NSW on March 23.
“It’s not really something I’m thinking about though, just because it’s so competitive,” she said.
“Another player could jump in if you’re not doing well or our coach might want to trial someone else, so I’m just focused on putting in hard work at training and becoming a better player.”
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