Saturday's Westfund Ferguson Cup thriller between Bathurst Bulldogs and Orange Emus may well have provided punters with an early-season grand final preview but it definitely proved one thing too - Jakiya Whitfield is in a class of her own.
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Whitfield, one of Sydney University's breakout stars in this year's AON Uni 7s, scored all four of Bulldogs' tries in their 26-19 victory over the greens, which takes her season tally to 10 five-pointers already.
But here's the kicker, she's only played two games.
Whitfield, nicknamed Winx by her Uni teammates thanks to her ridiculous speed, crossed six times in Bulldogs' comfortable win over Mudgee the week before, backing that effort up against a substantially-sounder defensive unit in Emus.
The first three on Saturday came from opportunistic quick-taps too.
Whitfield tapped from a penalty just outside her own 22, fended one would-be Emus defender off before sprinting away to open her sides' account.
Kirsten Howard pulled off a brilliant one-on-one tackle on the fringe and Bulldogs won a penalty as Emus held on and once again Whitfield tapped, catching her rivals napping.
They both came in the first quarter, Kate Gullifer's boot extending the lead to 14-nil.
Whitfield caught Emus out again on the stroke of half-time to complete a first half hat-trick, before Jacky Lyden crossed for the greens' first with the last play of the third quarter.
Lailee Phillips burst through to score early in the final term as well, Em McDonald adding the extras to cut the margin to just five at 19-14.
But Whitfield sealed her side's win, and her haul, by swooping onto a loose ball which came from an Emus' knock-on off a miscued Gullifer kick, scoring and putting the result to bed, although Amanda Ferguson scored a consolation for the greens in the dying seconds.
"I was nervous, when it got to 19-14, I thought 'it's going to go to the wire this one'. But I am happy that the girls really lifted," Bulldogs coach Tuma Aisake said.
"After our last game against Mudgee I said to the girls they had to lift. They have been training really well.
"I said to our girls, you've got to give [Emus] respect. If there's no respect you are going to get belted. But we did show them respect.
"Haylee Lepaio - woah - Tiffany [Holland] and Jakiya they just showed their experience."
Emus assistant coach Jeremy Reay was proud of the way his side fought their way back into the contest - one which used a 12-on-12 format - but conceded Bulldogs' strong start was the difference.
"When we ... started to bring a bit of intensity into it, you could see what we can do," he said.
"We had no ball at the start and you can't score without the ball. But as soon as we got the ball, you could see what happens, we scored.
"I guess it shows [Bulldogs] are the top team, but it gives us something to work for. We can beat them, we know we can."
- BATHURST BULLDOGS 26 (Jakiya Whitfield 4 tries; Kate Gullifer 3 conversions) def ORANGE EMUS 19 (Jacky Lyden, Lailee Phillips, Amanda Ferguson tries; Em McDonald 2 conversions)
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