SIRU women's sevens
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THE Dianas will get the chance to defend their Southern Inland women's sevens rugby premiership after downing archrival Griffith at No. 1 Oval on Saturday.
Leeton got out of the blocks early and with serious intent before holding off a second-half revival by the Blacks to win 31-17.
After a delayed start because of Griffith forgetting to bring their jumpers, it soon became obvious that mental lapse was an ominous sign for the visitors.
Leeton ran in two quick tries to Remi Wilton and Aimee Spowart and dominated possession, as Griffith barely got its hands on the ball.
The score blew out to 17-0 as Wilton scored her second from a break, sprinting 60 metres to go in under the posts.
After making a mistake collecting the ball from the restart and the resultant Leeton knock-on, Griffith finally got some possession and as a result, broke a Leeton tackle to keep the play alive and managed to slip the defence out wide right on half time to go into the break down 17-5.
It looked like the second half would be a repeat of the first when a nice runaround play off the back of the scrum saw captain Emma Tyrrell put Louise Strachan into a gap that had her through the line and the Dianas on their way to a 24-5 lead.
However, that sparked Griffith and the Blacks scored from an intercept and were all-but guaranteed of a second soon after ... except for Spowart's match-defining covering tackle that not only knocked the player into touch, but also out of the game. With the throw-in just metres out from the try line deemed not straight, Griffith took advantage of the field position to score and trail 24-17.
A sense of panic crept into the Dianas' play as the game was played in Grififth's attacking 22.
The Blacks again pushed for a scoring opportunity, but Georgia Wallace put her body on the line and with Leeton gaining possession, wise heads prevailed as the ball found its way to Strachan who this time had a 90m run for her second and Monique Higgins' third conversion for the day took the final score to 31-17.
Coach Bart Challacombe and his side were ecstatic after the game, although the second half did give the mentor heart palpitations.
"A repeat of the first half in the second half would have been lees stressful," Challacombe said. "Certainly the first half was outstanding.
"We only missed one tackle and they scored. That was the only time they had the ball."
While the opening provided one of his team's best performances for the season, Challacombe said there was still work to do.
"When they were under pressure, a couple of them were just passing, they threw the ball backwards," he said. "We need to take the ball into contact and reset. A couple of times the backline didn't quite match up in defence."
Although a some of the players were a bit sore after the physical encounter, there will be no let up at training this week.
Leeton will face Wagga City in the grand final next week after the Boiled Lollies defeated Ag College 32-17 on Saturday afternoon.
Dianas 31 (tries - Remi Wilton 2, Louise Strachan 2, Aimee Spowart; cons - Monique Higgins 3) d Griffith 17