After a couple of disappointing performances, the students were back to their best, or well on their way to it.

“I said to the boys afterwards, we’re probably two-thirds of the way to where we want to go with our game,” co-coach Tom Newsome said.

He said it was keenly contested. 

Albies led 12-3 at the break on the back of some good forward play.

They played a bit of a tighter game in the first half, attacking a bit closer channels.

“Then we started distributing in the second half and found some gaps out wide,” Newsome said, adding that they certainly looked more dangerous when they shifted it wide.

Their defence though was probably what won it.

“We had a period there where we were defending for 10 minutes on our line,” he said. 

For him, Saturday showed that they are growing a bit with their maturity.

They were able to adapt their game as required. 

“The set pieces were good and we were getting over the gain line,” he said. 

“We struggled a bit to maintain the ball. That’s what we’ve got to do now.” 

Ollie Bartlett had another strong game and topped the points, followed by Sinclair Clinton and Harry Webber, who again impressed at outside centre.

Despite the result, Baa Baas coach Tom Bower said they took a lot of positives out of the game.

“We did really well,” he said.

“It was one of those arm-wrestle games.

“A few lapses of concentration on our part cost us dearly.” 

Their issues came when Albies were able to dictate the pace and tempo of the game.

“Because they play a high- tempo game, any time they got on the front foot it gave them time to execute their plays,” he said.

Hooker Manutuke Tawhai was again amongst the points.

Sam Gates’s work-rate around the field was also really important, Bower said, while winger Dom Bower did quite well at the back in counter-attack and as a threat down the sideline.

Albies’ student counterparts Robb didn’t fare as well, going down to Armidale 31-29.

Robb coach Sam Ditchfield had predicted it would be tight and was right on the money, with only two points the difference in the end.

There wasn’t anything he could really pinpoint where the Blues won it or they lost it.

They had a few things working against them.

“We lost one of our props and a breakaway in the first 20 minutes and straight after half-time we lost our five-eighth,” Ditchfield said.

They also battled against the whistle in the first half.

Keen to try to take the space off the Blues’ big guys before they could get their speed up, they were penalised for being offside.

Ditchfield felt that affected them in the second half.

“Navi (Tiko) was probably the difference,” he said.

“I thought we contained him well in the first half.” 

“The second half, because we were so penalised in the first half our blokes were slower coming up, which allowed him to get up a bit of speed,” he said.