THEY didn’t get the points but Saturday’s eight-point loss to Pirates in the wet and the mud hasn’t dampened Walcha’s top five hopes.
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If anything, on the back of their efforts against defending champions and competition leaders Narrabri the previous week, it’s emphasised they have the goods to make the top five.
“The last two weeks against the top two teams we’ve played pretty well,” Rams coach Barry Hoy said.
They only went down by 11 to the Blue Boars and were missing Country duo Simon Newton and Soni Halanukonuka.
So much of their game, particularly in attack, revolves around them and the punch and direction they provide.
Saturday’s wet conditions did hamper them a bit but, as they had stated they intended to do before the game, they were still willing to use the ball when they had it.
“We were probably a bit impatient in periods,” Hoy said.
They had to absorb the pressure early, with the home side enjoying the bulk of the territory and play in the first six minutes.
But they held them out and eventually forced a knock on.
It set the tone for the first half, with both sides having periods where they had the other under pressure.
Aside from Pirates number eight Conrad Starr though, no one was able crack the defence.
Starr’s try gave Pirates a 5-nil lead at half-time, which Simon Trappel made 8-nil with just over 25 minutes to play.
The Rams had the better of the last 15 after some sharp work down the left between Ed Cordingley and Richard Young, and a well-weighted kick put them on the attack.
“We had a couple of opportunities where we had the pressure on but they defended their line pretty well,” Hoy said.
Heading in, they had said they needed to play a bit smarter than they had against the Blue Boars.
Hoy commented afterwards that they probably do still need to be a bit smarter about things.
One area they did play fairly smartly was their kicking game, mixing up long kicks with short kicks.
And with the pace they’ve got out wide they favoured a ground rather than aerial assault.
It was a tactic, Hoy explaining that in the wet it can be harder to pick the ball up off the ground than in the air.
Given the conditions, he couldn’t really fault them.
“We were pretty happy. Our scrum held them well,” he said.
The lineout was a bit of a different story but both sides struggled there.
“It was pretty hard to win a clean lineout,” he said.
The loss leaves them three points in front of sixth-placed Tamworth but with two of their last three games against sides below them while Narrabri heads the table and race for the top four on 28 points.
