Coach Joey de Dassel excited by Wildfires women 'prospects' after strong 10s showing

In their only hit-outs against other teams before the season start, the Wildfires were dominant in three of their four games at the tournament organised by Sydney Women's Rugby Union.

They beat Sydney University B 19-0, Warringah 29-5 and Norths 32-5 before losing a final match 20-10 to Sydney University A.

"We did very well ... one team pulled out so we put our hand up to play a fourth game, which was good," de Dassel said.

"We had no reserves for that last game because we had a few injuries, so we were super happy with the result.

"We put a focus on just doing the little things right and focusing on our effort and I was super happy with the effort that all 14 players we took away put in."

The Hunter women's team had all of their scheduled trial games in pre-season cancelled due to wet weather and de Dassel said the gala day provided valuable match minutes ahead of their round-one clash with Western Sydney on the road next Saturday.

"Players certainly put their hands up and have made my job very difficult in the next week to pick a 23 for that first game," he said.

"There were sprinklings of NSW Waratahs players throughout all of the other teams, so the fact that we didn't have any and not only competed but dominated some of the other teams is an exciting prospect moving forward.

"We've still got a lot of work to do but the effort was the thing we were all happy with."

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