The Rams lost to the unbeaten competition leaders 30-22 at Olympic Park in Sunday’s pulsating clash, coming from 22-nil down to level up the game in the second half.

“We are getting pretty close to them,” Muswellbrook co-coach Garry Jones said.

“But we are still a little away from them. 

“We knew they’d be tough on Sunday. 

“They are a good side who have been together for a fair while and are well led by Daniel (Ritter).

“He commands respect from his own players as well as from the opposition.

“We did get back to 22-all but through an intercept pass.

“And Freddy (Josh Adams) did score a good try for them (to break the deadlock).

“ But I was reasonably happy with the way we played. 

“We started well.”

He thought Rohan Pottinger was outstanding for the Rams.

“He made 30 hit-ups and played the full 80 minutes,” he said of the young prop.

“And that was against the best pack in the Group.

“Barker and Suckley are good props and Wicksy (Jarrod) killed us with a couple of dummy half runs too.”

He thought Brady Benkovic, who came off the bench, played strongly in the second row.

“We’re going along okay,” Jones added.

“However we did cop a couple more injuries. 

“Young Elliot Serhan has a groin injury and could be out for a while and  centre Sam White broke an arm and will be gone four to six.

“We are starting to run out of troops and don’t look like getting anyone back for a while.

“It looks like we might be using a few more from the Under 18s.”

The Ram 18s are unbeaten, with the likes of Jake Parker playing plenty of first grade games.

Mindful of not wearing those teens out, Jones gave Parker the day off from the 18s to concentrate on first grade.

The Rams go to Greta Oval this Sunday to play the Colts, who stunned Aberdeen 14-4 last Saturday. 

Aberdeen head down to Singleton’s Pirtek Park this Saturday while Scone goes to Denman to tackle a Devils side struggling for numbers and which forfeited to the Greyhounds at Singleton on Sunday.