Northland premier women's rugby: City RFC, Te Rarawa push for finals spots

City RFC (in blue) and Kamo Hawks played out a competitive game on Friday night in Kamo, City winning 34-5. Photo / Supplied

City RFC and Te Rarawa have continued their march towards the Northland women's rugby competition finals with strong round five wins.

Sitting at the top of the table by three points, Te Rarawa fended off a valiant Dargaville OB team to record a convincing 138-0 win in Dargaville on Sunday.

City, who are second on the table and one point above third-placed Kaikohe, managed to grind out a win away from home against Kamo Hawks under lights on Friday night, winning 34-5.

Coming off a tough loss to Te Rarawa last week, the City side showed their ability to bounce back and continue their early form.

"It's definitely a rewarding result for the ladies coming off that loss," City co-coach Marcelle Kaipo said.

"It showed the character of the team, learning from their losses and preparing for new opposition because [Kamo Hawks] are a well-drilled, fit team."

Kaipo said they had planned to restrict a dangerous Kamo Hawks backline by keeping the ball in close and pulling their opposition's backline defenders in.

"Our job was to keep it tight, bring their backline into the forwards and then execute with numbers out wide when we had the overlap."

With strong performances in their set piece, Kaipo credited his flankers Lily Murray-Wihongi and Whitney Palmer for their work across the park and defensive effort around the ruck.

City next play Kaikohe and Kaipo said the consistency of good opposition will be a beneficial learning curve for his players.

"Having the three top teams in a row is giving our girls more experience and allowing us to understand how the finals are going to be," he said.

"We just need to focus on our communication and backline defence because Kaikohe have got a reputation for having one of the sharpest backlines."

In the round's other game, Kaikohe won by default after Marist OB could not field a team.