The Hunter Wildfires women may not have got the desired result against Gordon in Jack Scott Cup on Saturday but coach Joey de Dassel is pleased with how they are tracking at the season midpoint.
The game at Gordon marked the end of the first round in the Sydney women's rugby union competition.
Hunter led 14-5 at half-time before going down 24-19 for just their second loss in five outings.
The other was in round two against their next opponents - league heavyweights Sydney Uni.
"We started well but they come back and put a lot of pressure on us for most of the first half," de Dassel said.
"We got a try against the run of the play just before half-time which put us in the lead then they put the pressure back on us and we made a few mistakes that allowed them back into the game.
"They got a couple of quick tries then we were on the back foot from there. We flicked the switch and were coming home strong, we just ran out of time."
Emily Sheather, Olivia Creswick and Maryann Utai all scored tries for Hunter, who were well led by strong performances from No.8 Shana Povey and front-rower Hannah Stewart.
De Dassel said the Wildfires were looking forward to a run of home games in the second half of the season as they looked to push for a place in the finals.
Hunter have played four of their five first-round matches on the road.
"At the midpoint, we take out of it that we can compete with everyone in the competition," de Dassel said.
"That's definitely something where we didn't know where we stood before we played everyone. We certainly think we can compete with Gordon. Sydney Uni are the other team who have beaten us and we're confident we can compete with them as well.
"So we've proved to ourselves that we're viable in the competition, but now we've just got to sharpen up a few things if we're going to be there at the business end."
The Wildfires will play Sydney Uni at No.2 Sportsground next Saturday.
