Wildfires knuckle down with focus on finals after loss in Manly mudbath

Joey de Dassel, who is back on the Wildfires coaching staff this year after mentoring them to finals in 2022, felt there were more positives than negatives to take out of a 15-0 loss to second-placed Manly in atrocious conditions at a sodden Manly Oval on Saturday.

Hunter, who were third heading into the round-10 match, had not played for three weeks due to a break in competition plus a forfeit against them and complete the first part of the draw next weekend with a bye.

The competition then splits into a top six and bottom five with the Wildfires set to face two heavyweights straight up in their pursuit of a finals spot.

"We have another bye which is not ideal for us," de Dassel said.

"After next week we will have played two games in seven weeks or something like that, but there are positives to that as well in that we should be nice and fresh coming into that back end of the season.

"Our next two games are against Easts and then Sydney Uni. That's two really big games coming up for us after the bye, so we've got a lot of training to do.

"We've got players to shuffle around and move into different positions. We've got players away for the next couple of games. But we've got some good depth in our squad this year so we're comfortable with where we're at with that.

"We're just keen to train hard, play some games and really give it a shake."

Manly took a 10-0 lead into half-time after scoring tries around the 10-minute mark then leading into the break.

The Wildfires sustained a blow early in the exchange with tight-head prop Kereni Nabalarua forced from the field with a broken thumb. In the second half, they lost experienced forward April Radford to a back issue.

"Unfortunately, we had to go uncontested in the scrums, which meant we had to take a player off the field," de Dassel said.

"We just couldn't avoid it. We just had injuries. We had loose-head props but that's the other side and the Manly scrum was too strong to put inexperienced front-rowers in.

"We played the last 15 minutes with one less player but we actually held them to nil-all.

"They're coming second and only just. They only just got beat by Sydney Uni and since that game they've got quite a few new players, so in my mind they're well and truly up there with Sydney Uni as the strongest team in the comp so there's a lot of pleasing stuff we can take out of it.

"Our defensive effort again was outstanding. We had a brand new girl play halfback because we've got injuries, Charlotte Maslen. She did a fantastic job in almost impossible conditions. Every other ground in Sydney was shut. It's probably the worst conditions I've ever seen."

In Hunter Women's Rugby on Saturday, Nelson Bay beat Southern Beaches 22-10, Hamilton defeated Maitland 31-5, Wanderers overpowered University 70-0 and Merewether were 99-0 winners against Cooks Hill.