Walcha transformed a frustrating first half into another scintillating showcase of their arsenal as they made it two from two at Tamworth Rugby Park on Saturday.
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After kicking off their season with an 88-12 drubbing of Quirindi, the Rams hammered the Magpies 64-nil.
It was a dominant, albeit not always clinical, display from the Rams, and while the Magpies forwards matched up well they had no answer to the class and speed of the Walcha backs.
Up 14-nil at half-time, there was a sense of frustration for the Rams at their inability to finish.
After having the better of the opening minutes and missing a couple of – what would turn out to be scarce – opportunities to post points, the Magpies must have felt like they were under siege in the first half.
They were constantly trying to clear from their half as the Rams launched raid after raid.
But they only had two tries to show for it, with the Magpies defending their line valiantly and the Rams pushing passes.
“We scored a couple of early tries and we didn’t respect the ball. People were hanging off waiting rather than securing the ball,” co-coach Barry Hoy said.
That was the crux of Hoy and co-coach Hyde Thompson’s half-time talk.
“We told them they had to get to the ball,” Hoy said.
He felt like it was only a matter of time.
“Even in that first half we weren’t that far away from running over them,” he said.
“But were weren’t doing those little percenters to make it easier for the bigger picture.”
It quickly became clear the message had got through, with the Rams running in five tries in the first 20 minutes to push out to a 40-nil lead.
Inside centre Pat Keen pursed his second hat-trick in as many games, while winger Dom Bower chimed in with a double.
They were superbly led around by five-eighth Simon Newton, who was in Hoy’s mind a clear standout.
“If he wasn’t making the break he was making the pass for it,” he said.
Magpies coach Craig Summers had predicted it would be a tough day at the office, but was happy with the way the forwards stood up.
“It was just our backs. We didn’t make our one-on-one tackles,” he said.
They also didn’t seem to have learnt from the first round, with the Rams stinging them on the counter.
“That’s what happened to us in Inverell, we didn’t react to their unstructured play,” Summers said.
Still he was pretty happy, and hopeful, at half-time. He thought they were still in the game, if they played like they did early in the first half and could scrape together a bit more possession.
But after that first try their heads dropped.
There were some positives to take away though.
“From Inverell to now I was really happy with our forwards,” Summers said.
“Our ball retention was a lot better. Against Inverell we couldn’t hold it for one phase. We held it for about the first 10 minutes.”
He was particularly impressed with Ethan Dickie’s game on debut.
