The premiers have been in top form and when they jumped out to a 2-nil lead after 10 minutes things were looking ominous for Tudors. But they clawed their way back to 2-all and a share of the points.

It was a weekend of close tussles, with Services beating Olympians 5-3 and Flames edging out South United 1-nil in the two Sunday games.

Services were welcoming back coach Kimmy McLean, who has been away with the Australian Country side touring Vietnam and Hong Kong, and were sparked by a double to Taniesha Donnelly.

Jemima Bartlett likewise slotted a double for an Olympians side that coach Andrew Farmilo thought was a bit unlucky.

“We had some really good possession early and probably dominated field position but we couldn’t get a goal,” Farmilo said.

They didn’t fare much better with corners, and then Services got two quick goals on the counter and they were away.

“We competed well but the execution was not quite there,” he said.

Tegan Smith’s penalty corner strike midway through the first half was then all that split Flames and Souths.

It came somewhat against the run of play with Souths all over them in the early stages, Smith said.

“They had most of the possession of the ball,” she said.

But the Flames defence was able to hold them out.

Smith said the performance was an improvement on their first couple of games.

“We didn’t pass very well but we managed to find holes and get through,” she said.

Kate Ferguson was strong in the midfield, as was Kimmy Resch at inside midfield and Tracey Freeman in goals, the latter making a couple of important saves.

Coach Barrie Pritchard thought they were a bit lucky with Souths having a couple of golden chances that went across the face of the goal.

Souths’ Hayden Lewin commented on both sides defence with the game played between the circles.

“Our midfield and defence were fantastic in limiting Flames to only one goal. It was a really good effort from them,” he said.

On Saturday night, after a slow start Tudors started contesting the ball better and after some great ball movement and passing got back to 2-1 in the 17^th minute. 

It stayed that to the break, where for Tudors the talk centered on tightening their defence inside the defensive 25, which coach Helen Willis felt they did.

“Brooklyn Cooper added some good options in the centre midfield, enabling Millie Sherwood and Jess Clarke to build well in the attacking mid through to our strikers and we released some good early balls to stretch Waratahs,” she said.

That eventually led to Cooper equalising off a penalty corner. They had a late chance to possibly steal the game after a brilliant interception from Georgia Horniman. But Tayla King scrambled back to make the save on the line after Horniman had run half the pitch and eliminated the keeper.