Backline moves as Wildfires look to repeat defensive effort against Gordon

Eriksson praised Hunter's defensive resolve in a 7-3 loss to newcomers Southern Districts in the opening round of Sydney's premier women's rugby union competition last weekend.

Now, he wants to see an ever steelier performance against Gordon (4.55pm).

"It was really pleasing," Eriksson said of the first-up effort, which came after just one trial match in pre-season.

"I couldn't fault our defence. The girls really stepped up and put their stamp on that defensive set-up. They set that bar.

"We've now challenged them that's the standard. They set that from round one. So we want to put those defensive efforts up week in week out and we think we can go a long way if we can defend the way we did in that first round.

"We did a lot of hard work in the middle but just couldn't finish it off. All in all, we were very pleased with the game, even though we lost, and we're excited for the challenge of Gordon."

Eriksson has been forced to reshuffle his team with fullback Brooke Klingner sidelined for up to four weeks due to a knee injury and a number of players unavailable.

Waratahs Super W prop Georgia Chapple comes into the starting side after playing off the bench in round one but will be used in the back row.

"We've had a bit of a reshuffle in the back line because we've lost Brooke," Eriksson said.

"We've moved Anika Butler to 15 this week, Susannah Cooke's gone back to halfback and we've brought Shana [Povey-Hyatt] out of the forwards to fill in at five-eight for us."