Riverina have plenty of work to do if they are going to secure a finals berth in the women's Country Championships.
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The Bulls dictated terms for long parts of their clash with Macarthur Wests Tigers at Camden on Sunday but struggled to make it count on the scoreboard.
Instead it was their rivals who capitalised on a hot period midway through the clash to take a 14-10 victory.
Things started well for Riverina, when Bulou Baravilala crossed after 13 minutes.
However coach Andrew Hinchcliffe was disappointed they couldn't quite go on with the job
"I was pretty pleased but obviously a little disappointed that we weren't able to get the choccies," Hinchcliffe said.
"Considering our preparation in relation to the formation of the squad and how much time we've actually had to train as a team, which has been impacted by COVID over the last couple of weeks and months, so from that perspective I was still pretty pleased.
"Our effort was high in a lot of areas, a lot of the girls played really well and I think we were all a little disappointed we didn't get the win we were hoping we might of but in the end we probably lacked high-end execution to get the result."
Baravilala got the Bulls back into the game when she crossed for her second try off a brilliant Takilele Katoa offload right on the try line with 17 minutes to play.
However despite a number of good opportunities, particularly late in the game, Riverina couldn't capitalise.
"There were a lot of stages where I thought we were really looking in a position of control and really had things in hand but for whatever reason we'd come up with an error or a bad result during the game that really shifted the momentum," Hinchcliffe said.
"We were good enough to get our way back into the second half and we gave ourselves plenty of chances but just weren't good enough to get the job done late in the second half.
"We failed to build the pressure as much as we could have and it was pretty frantic towards the end."
After winning the inaugural titles in 2019, Riverina made it through to last year's grand final.
However with a loss to kick things off they will now have their work cut out for them when they host Illawarra South Wagga at Laurie Daley Oval on Saturday.
They got the better of the Dragons last year and Hinchcliffe hopes an improved defensive effort will help but they will also need other results to go their way.
"They will be strong Illawarra but we will be much better for the run," he said.
"There were a few things to look at during the week to get better at."
Hinchcliffe is also looking for the side to employ a better attacking style after struggling to really bring their back line into the contest against the Tigers.
"At times I think we could be shifting the ball quicker to give some more time to our outside backs and a little bit of depth when we are in good field position will help there as well," he said.