“We played exactly the way we wanted to, apart from the stupid penalties,” he said.

“Our ill-discipline let them back into it, but other than that I was very happy with how we played.

McMillan said his pack, led by the front row of hooker Anthony Piddington and props Richard Cumming and Geordie Marchant, was outstanding, singling out the latter for special mention.

“Geordie has been crook for two weeks with pneumonia so it was a top effort even to play, but he was great value for us,” he said.

“He gets the boys into the right frame of mind and is a calming influence when things get heated.”

McMillan also marvelled at the performance of outside centre John Roberts, who scored a brilliant solo try and was a constant handful for the Albies defence. 

“He was outstanding,” he said.

If things went to plan on the field, it was a different story in the lead-up to the match, with fullback Adam Croft sustaining a knee injury at training on Thursday night, then his replacement Blaine Moore hurt his knee in the pre-match warm up and only lasted 10 minutes of the match, forcing a backline reshuffle.

The loss also proved costly for the students, losing flanker Yonny Meron for the season with a dislocated elbow, and star fullback-cum-five-eighth Dan Sweeney with a shoulder injury.

Despite the injury toll and a poor showing at the set pieces, Albies were in the match until the final five minutes, when Blues half Dan Ah See finished off a spectacular movement, again instigated by Roberts, to put the result beyond doubt.

Things looked ominous for the students from the opening scrum, which the Blues wheeled to gain the put in, one of three such instances in the match. 

The lineouts were even worse, with Albies losing six on their own throw.

Somehow though they managed to stick with the Blues, clawing back a 13-3 deficit to draw level at 13-all at half-time, thanks to a brilliant solo effort by Albies’ stand-in five-eighth Sweeney.

If the loss of Meron in the first tackle of the second half, followed by a try to Blues’ number eight Jone Tiko two minutes later, made the students’ task all the more difficult, it became all but impossible when Sweeney was forced from the field.

For coach Tom Newsome the reasons for the loss were simple.

“We didn’t get enough ball, we didn’t control it when we had it, so we spent most of the game defending,” he said.

“Armidale weren’t great but we were worse.”

Newsome said skipper Alex Pay at inside centre and halfback Jack King were his side’s best, in a performance that needed to improve markedly to keep their grand final hopes alive.

“We just need to execute better,” he said.

“Hopefully we can do that on Saturday and meet these blokes (Armidale) again in a fortnight.”