The Red Devils had it far from easy, although that was partly of their own making, with only a point in it at half-time.

But the Red Devils righted their issues from the first half to pull away for a 27-9 win.

Coach Jason Waerea had been a bit worried about complacency heading in after a good first-up performance against Moree and with the Lions suffering a heavy defeat at the hands of Walcha.

“Our shed chat before the game was that our biggest evil would be complacency,” Waerea said.

“We knew they would be a different team at home.”

And so the Lions proved to be.

“Elliot (Tourle) played for them. He’s such a smart 10 and he just relieved the pressure,” he said.

He was making 40m kicks downfield and punished the Red Devils for their illdiscipline to have the Lions trailing only 10-9 at half-time.

“The game itself was probably pretty scrappy in the first half,” Waerea said.

“They were very spoiling.”

That said, he felt they were dominant in both halves, but were in the first half a bit too overconfident and going wide too early, which led to dropped balls.

“A few times we thought it was just going to happen,” Waerea said.

They probably should have scored two or three more tries than the two they did in the first half.

Waerea’s message to them at half-time was to get in their pods and “don’t start playing like globetrotters”, referring to the famed basketball showmen the Harlem Globetrotters.

He spoke about straightening up the attack and being prepared to carry the ball up and do the hard work, which they did.

Will Archer made a big difference coming on in the second half.

“He runs good lines and is a great hole runner,” he said.

As disgruntled as he was with their attack at times, Waerea was very happy with their defence.  

“We didn’t let a try in, which was great,” he said.

“And there were very minimal line breaks.”

Jamie Mitchell led the defensive effort at five-eighth and picked up the three points ahead of number eight Sanimo Navatu and prop Matt Pardisi, who was the players player. Hooker-come-half-back Brendon Willoughby, backing up from second grade, also did a good job filling in at nine after they lost Zac Harris in the first half to a head knock.

The Red Devils sit fourth after two rounds behind the unbeaten Walcha and Pirates, and Moree.