Barraba beat Walcha 34-6 at Barraba Sportsground after leading 10-6 at half time in what Bulldogs captain-coach Tim Coombes described as a “real battle”

“It was an arm wrestle,” the Barraba prop and captain coach told The Leader last night.

“They’re a pretty good side. It was the toughest game we’ve played this year. They’ll win a lot more games this year.”

Barraba lock Jayse Starr was a standout for the Bulldogs as they powered away with the game in the second half.

Joey Latham also impressed again for the home side.

“But we had a lot of good players today,” Coombes said.

“Everyone, right across the park played well. Had to because Walcha have got some good players.

“Their halfback, Jason Latham was really good. He steered them around well.”

Out at Kootingal Oval the Roosters continued their impressive and unbeaten start to the season with a 44-4 win over Boggabri Kangaroos. The Roosters dominated with Jeremy Moss and Ryan Martin scoring three tries each as the backline fired on the back of a rolling pack.

Manager Phil Cook said it was great to see the backline finally clicking.

“It was a great performance by the boys and great to remain undefeated,” Cook said.

Captain Coach Nathan Hamlin had a big game as did utility forward Robert Sanbrook, although it was a great team effort

The one down side was the loss of Brett Cloake, possibly for the season, with a dislocated shoulder.

Dungowan Cowboys beat Manilla Tigers 52-6 at Manilla Showground.

A battling Manilla side did well to have a team on the park after losing four players and their entire committee in the last fortnight.

Unfortunately they played like a team that is a bit lost and were rolled by the Cowboys.

Dungowan scored 10 tries in the game although coach Luke Taylor was far from happy with the performance.

“Our attitude is not there and we are not getting the numbers to training,” Taylor said.

Clint Ridley and Damien Pittman were the coach’s pick, although halfback Matt Wilson got the referee’s points.

Down at Werris Creek’s David Taylor Park the Magpies almost gave up a good half time lead for the second week in a row.

After leading Walcha 22-10 at halftime but losing to the Roos in Walcha last week the Magpies led 24-10 at halftime yesterday.

When Rob Symington crashed over from a Stewart Porter pass early in the second half yesterday the Magpies looked in comfortable control but then gave up half a dozen errors with poor handling.

They invited the Mountain Men back in and were lucky the Jake Reid coached side didn’t accept the initial invitation.

However Bendemeer couldn’t refuse half a dozen unforced errors to get back to 28-26 with tries to Michael Sampson (his second), Bruce Murray (his second) and Jai Cain.

It made for a big final six or seven minutes and the Magpies were lucky Cody Tickle latched onto a looping Stewart Porter pass to crash over beside the posts and convert for a 34-26 win.

“We kept on saying come and get us, come and get us,” a disappointed coach Ron Dellar said.

“We’ll be all right if we can stop those silly things.”

G4 SECOND DIVISION TABLE

Barraba 10, Kootingal 10, Dungowan 8, Werris Creek 6, Walcha 6, Bendemeer 4, Boggabri 2, Manilla 2.