NEWCASTLE coach Stu Pinkerton is confident of a much-improved performance on home soil in the second round of the national university women's sevens series at St Oval this weekend.
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Newcastle were given a lesson on tournament rugby, including a cancelled flight, in the opening round in Adelaide last weekend.
They recorded three wins and three losses, before going down 17-12 to the hosts in a play-off to finish sixth.
"We were disappointed with our overall finish," Pinkerton said. "We beat some teams in the pool rounds who finished ahead of us. That was frustrating."
Newcastle recorded wins over South Australia (15-10), Canberra (10-5) and Melbourne 19-17. They went down to eventual finalists Bond (32-5) and Western Australia (24-12) and Sydney University (19-17).
They led Sydney 17-7 with two minutes remaining.
"A tournament reflects just how ruthless sevens can be," Pinkerton said.
"You can go from the top to the bottom really quickly. We were tracking all right Saturday afternoon and the loss to Sydney Uni really knocked us around.
"They scored two tries in the last two minutes, then kicked a conversion to win. That was a killer. We would have been in a play-off for third and fourth. The team that came third, Melbourne, we beat them in the pool game on Sunday morning."
Newcastle were lucky to even get to Adelaide.
"We bussed down to Sydney on Friday and our Virgin flight got cancelled," Pinkerton said. "We had to race across to the Qantas terminal and just got on the last flight to Adelaide. We didn't get to bed until past midnight.
"It wasn't an ideal preparation but the playing group responded pretty well. We put that behind us quickly and moved on.
"The ruthless nature of sevens, you only have to miss one tackle and it's a try. If you get the kick-off wrong, that is potentially another try. That is all that happened in the games we lost. One small error.
"Our senior players - Tahlia Goldsmith, Jess Gentle, Peta Salter and Sue Cooke - did their job. They are the experienced core and had a solid tournament.
"Some of our younger players - Kyah Watters, Ella Morris, Maddie Marmion - played really well considering it was their first occasion.
"I always said that we would improve on our first up effort. The girls will learn from it and be better for the experience."
Newcastle open round two against Canberra at 10am on Saturday, before taking on Sydney (11.50am) and Adelaide (1.50pm). On Sunday they tackle Melbourne (8.20am), Bond (9.20am) and West Australia (11.20am) and the play-offs.
