The Western Force made club history over the weekend, with their maiden Buildcorp Super Rugby Women’s semi-finals berth secured, but Force head coach Dylan Parsons didn’t celebrate for long.
The Force secured their first-ever Super W semi-finals spot by virtue of Friday night’s 17-15 Queensland Reds’ win over the Melbourne Rebels.
That result, with no bonus points gained, made it mathematically impossible for the fifth-placed Reds (four points) to climb above the third-placed Force (nine points), on head-to-head countback with the WA club winning their encounter 24-14 in Perth earlier this season.
But, after a brief moment to celebrate the team’s achievement, Parsons was eager to move on from the history-making feat for Saturday’s Round 4 clash with the Waratahs, which ended in a 45-21 defeat at UWA Sports Park.
“It’s one of those ones, we’re excited for the time being but we knew we had a job today,” Parsons told reporters after Saturday’s game.
That result, combined with the Fijian Drua’s 20-7 win over the ACT Brumbies, leaves the Force in third and needing a Round 5 bonus-point victory to have any shot at a home semi-final.
The third-placed Force journey to Canberra to face the fourth-placed Brumbies on Saturday from 12:35pm WST in Round 5. Both sides currently have nine points.
The Waratahs are locked in for top spot, while the Drua are second on 13 points and visit the sixth-placed Melbourne Rebels on Saturday from 3:05pm WST.
Parsons said: “Now it’s on to the next job which is the Brumbies next week and see where we finish to go into the finals series.
“We still have a great position to work out where we finish which will dictate where we play, either home or away, so still plenty to play for.”
The Force displayed plenty of spirit, offering the home fans reason for pride and optimism, with an unrelenting performance culminating in late tries to Michaela Leonard and Renae Nona, both laid off by captain Trilleen Pomare.
Earlier, three Sammy Wood penalty goals had the scoreline at 12-9 in a tight first half, before the Waratahs touched down for two tries following a yellow card to Black Ferns front-rower Harono Te Iringa.
The visitors pulled clear in the second half after Canada international Sara Cline was also binned.
“Probably just shows against a quality team like the Waratahs, if you do make mistakes, they’re a team that can punish you,” Parsons said.
“It wasn’t all doom and gloom. There were some good parts in there. When you miss your chances in key areas, there’s too many threats across that field.
“It shows as well, you get yellow cards against a team like that, you put yourself in a position where you’re under pressure.
“That’s good learnings for us, to be disciplined and to be accurate and not to allow them to have those chances. We lost control of the game when we didn’t do that.”
The Force coaches made six changes to the starting XV against the Tahs, with Parsons looking to utilize their depth.
Parsons was left impressed, although noted injuries to Aiysha Wigley and Alanis Toia may add another challenge to that depth.
“We made some changes today,” he said. “Those changes coming on from the Impact Squad, that keeps showing we can go deep into our squad.
“We’re going to have to go deeper again after a couple of serious injuries coming out of today’s game. We’ll get them looked at and get around those girls.
“The hard part of these short seasons is it doesn’t take much of an injury to be ruled out for the rest of the comp.”
The Force will travel to Canberra on Friday for Saturday’s game from 12:35pm WST at Viking Park. The team list will be named on Wednesday.
