Flat Tamworth no match for Walcha

The Magpies bowed out of the race for the inaugural Tier 2 premiership after succumbing to a red-hot Walcha side 48-11.

It was the only blow-out of what was a super weekend of finals.

Five of the six games were decided by five points or less and went down to the final minute.

The Magpies were in the contest at half-time but their title hopes quickly plummeted early in the second half, with the Rams scoring twice in the space of a few minutes to blow out to a 33-11 lead.

Magpies co-coach Ross Duncan felt they were right in the challenge at half-time, down only 19-11.

“I guess the Rams had most of the momentum in the first half but we were still in touch on the scoreboard,” he said.

And the Rams had only got to that with a late try.

It was the first of a double blow for the Magpies, withcaptain Rhys Duncan binned for a high shot not long after.

That was exacerbated by Harry Veitch then being binned a couple of minutes into the second half leaving them two players down for about eight minutes.

Duncan had no doubt that did  hurt them.

Both those early tries came while they were down players.

But he couldn’t use that as an excuse. They were generally outplayed and made too many mistakes.

“We were pretty flat,” Duncan said.

And up against a Walcha side hurting from being humbled by Scone last week, that wasn’t going to end well.

Their problems started up front, with the set pieces again  an achilles heel.

“Our lineout was terrible,” Duncan said.

“They were getting guys up in front.”

They couldn’t seem to stop it and, when they did go over, they tended to clear their own jumpers.

“Our scrum was under pressure too,” he said.

The Rams outpointed them generally in the forwards.

“They bullied us in the forwards a bit,” Duncan said.

That said, he thought they got away with a bit.

“They were allowed to get away with a lot at the breakdown,” he said.

“They seemed to be off their feet and we were getting penalised for it.”

Another crucial area was the kicking game.

“Every time we kicked it we seemed to be kicking it to them on the burst,” Duncan said.

Which was  dangerous  with the pace the Rams have in their back three.

“When they kicked they seemed to be kicking over the top of us and turning us around,” he said.

It wasn’t the finish they were hoping for to what was a much-improved season.

The Rams had been off their game in recent weeks but were back to their best.

“We were very subdued the last couple of games,” Rams coach Andrew Crawford said.

“There was a bit of urgency across the board.”

While they scored most of their points in the second half, he thought the groundwork was done in the first half.