The final 65-5 scoreline doesn’t read well but, from where they were after 20 minutes, the Lions did well to keep it to that.

“We’re taking small steps to how we need to play to be a competitive side,” Rees said.

Saturday was the complete opposite of the previous week for them.

Then they were in the game at half-time but switched off after half-time and Narrabri ran in three tries to take the game away from them.

On Saturday they didn’t come out of the sheds and by midway through the first half found themselves down 35-nil.

But once they “stuck in” they were competitive.

“Once we put some phases together we looked good,” Rees said.

“We had some good structured play.”

They just cruelled themselves with simple errors like lineout throws not straight or turning over the ball after six or seven phases.

“You work so hard for five or six phases and as soon as you turn over the ball Pirates would be on it,” Rees said.

It can be deflating too, to do all that hard work but have nothing to show for it.

They didn’t have a lot of luck either.

Following a build-up of about 10 phases, prop Angus Fraser was ruled to be held up with about 16 to go in the first half.

They then had a try called back early in the second half for a forward pass and then, on full-time, another disallowed for being pushed into touch.

But while they went unrewarded, it was moments like those that are fuelling Rees’ optimism.

The lineout was one of the big positives for them.

“Our lineout worked well again,” he said.

“And our structured play off the lineout went well.”

They had some good phases off the scrum as well.

Defence though was again a bit of an issue. Pirates seemed to find holes and make metres too easily, in the first half especially.

One of their problems was they had no talk.

“Out on the field you can’t rely on three men to do the talking,” Rees said.

“You need 15. We weren’t doing that.”

Hooker Toby Simkin was again in everything and hard to go past as their best.

Jake Murray was also good at five-eighth.

He caused Pirates a few issues in the middle of the field and made the initial break for the disallowed try at the end.