Pirates women's co-captain Rosie Ferguson enjoys winning Waratahs debut at Santos Festival of Rugby

When what a wild and potentially life-changing journey she has been on the last few months really sunk in.

Not that long ago she was leading Pirates out onto Dangar Park. Now here she was running out for the Waratahs.

"It's kind of crazy," Ferguson said post-match of Saturday's trial against the Reds.

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"I tried not to think about it as this kind of level.

"I wanted to go out there and just play my footy and think that I was at home with the Pirates, kind of try and put the nerves away."

Named in the side to play the second half, she said it was good "knowing what your job was and what we wanted to achieve".

Playing at outside centre she looked far from out of her depth with some strong runs and good work over the ball to secure at least one penalty.

"I was a bit lost out there at times, but hopefully it didn't show too much," she said.

"But no, it was a good game overall and really excited for the season ahead."

She had the honour of kicking the ball into touch to secure a very tough 13-5 win, with the mercury reaching the high 30s and their Australian stars staying home.

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"It was especially hard without the Wallaroos girls and all that experience in the squad, so it was really good to come out here, really grind away for that first 40 and get away with the win," Ferguson said.

The biggest moment of her career so far, she said it made all the hours travelling to and from Sydney - since October she's been commuting from Manilla down to training at least twice a week - and all the hard work, feel worth it.

But, as she readily concedes, she "has a lot of hard work yet" to be where she wants to be as a player.

She is still finding her way in the 15s game and trying to figure out what her best position is. At training she has been playing a bit in the centres, as well as on the wing; "floating in at fullback every now and then."

Initially when she first starting training with them not expecting too much to come from it and just grateful for the experience, over the months Ferguson has grown in confidence and is now daring to dream of playing Super W.

One of the things she has particularly got more confident with is her physicality.

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"I've always kind of just relied on country tough and run hard," she said.

"But learning everything behind that, all your technique and all that kind of really does make a difference."

"It's also good having older heads in the squad to kind of learn off and grow off so that's also been amazing."

The Waratahs have their season launch on Tuesday and then on Wednesday head to New Zealand for a pre-season tour that will include games against the Chiefs and Blues.

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