Kick-off time questioned as Wildfires seal breakthrough grand final appearance

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Coach Joey de Dassel has queried the early kick-off time of their semi-final in Sydney women's premier rugby union, but said it felt "bloody awesome" to beat Manly 15-8 on Saturday and secure a breakthrough division one grand final appearance.

The match was played at Keirle Park, a back field in Manly which Wildfires general manager Stuart Pinkerton told the Newcastle Herald was known as "dogshit park", and scheduled for a 10.30am kick-off.

"I think that the people who run the competition can certainly look at scheduling of games, field availability," de Dassel said.

"I do appreciate it's difficult when there's so much rugby on a Saturday afternoon, but for a semi-final you'd think there would be some good facilities available for that.

"That's an ongoing challenge ... Manly wanted to schedule the game as early as possible to disadvantage us because they know we have to travel.

"So, to play a first-grade semi-final at 10.30 in the morning, that's questionable as well that they were allowed to do that without any real good reason for that.

"But we overcame that obstacle and that challenge and that's rewarding in itself."

The Wildfires entered the Sydney competition in 2020, winning the division two grand final that year.

They stepped up to division one in 2021 and have been a top-four since since but, until this year, had never won a finals match.

This year, they have had to win two to secure a maiden grand final appearance in the top grade.

The Wildfires beat Sydney Uni 29-8 in the first weekend of this year's expanded top-five finals series before pushing aside Manly.

As has been the case for most of this season, the win on Saturday was built on defence.

"We eked out a win," an elated de Dassel said post-match on Saturday.

"We certainly battled and it was just our will that got us over the line. We made it hard for ourselves at times from an attacking point of view and invited Manly back into the game.

"We gave them lots of opportunity but our defence was first class today and we were able to hold them out multiple times when they had the ball on our try line, and that's what essentially won us the game."

The Wildfires led 5-3 after a rain-soaked first half.

Wildfires veteran Anika Butler, who has been with the club since day dot, opened the scoring before Manly closed the gap with a penalty kick.

Manly took an 8-8 lead with a try early in the second half before Emily Dietrich, who was shifted from scrumhalf to fullback after regular No.15 Caity Costello succumbed to injury midweek, put the Wildfires back on level terms with a penalty kick.

Dietrich then found the matchwinning try with 15 minutes remaining before converting her five-pointer for a famous seven-point victory.

"There was still plenty of time and, for that last 15, Manly were camped on our line for probably 10 minutes and we were just able to hold them out and it was just really gutsy," de Dassel said.

"We did make a lot of errors ... but we got the job done."

The Wildfires will play Warringah in the championship decider at Concord Oval next Saturday at 3pm.

The Wildfires women's program expanded to two teams this year and the club's division-two side are also through to their grand final after semi-final opponents Randwick forfeited due to low player numbers.