Pirates fired an ominous warning as they shattered Walcha’s unbeaten start at Walcha on Saturday.
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The top of the table clash petered into a fairly one-sided affair with the defending premiers thumping the Rams 50-5.
Conrad Starr celebrated the birth of his second child during the week with three tries in what was a dominant display across the park.
“That’s the best I’ve seen them play since last year,” Pirates coach Mat Kelly said.
They had to overcome some adversary. They lost breakaway Sam Collins to a head knock late in the first half, and had three players sin-binned, including two late in the game.
It was testament to their defence that they held the Rams to just the one try, Kelly highlighting that as one of the keys to the victory.
“I was very happy with the defensive effort. They threw a lot at us,” he said.
The backs also really stepped up their game.
“All the talk before the game was how good they (Walcha backs) are going.
“They used that as motivation,” Kelly said.
“Andrew Moodie at 10 really controlled things early on and set the tone.
“He kept turning their big boys around.”
Rams co-coach Barry Hoy also noted the way Pirates were able to dictate the game through Moodie.
“They played our game. He kicked to the corners and made us work it out,” he said.
It was what they had planned to do but didn’t have a lot of opportunity to execute.
Hoy was succinct in his appraisal.
“We got our a**** smacked,” he said.
“We didn’t play that well. We were too high when we took the ball up and they held it up.”
He had spoken leading into the game about it being important their body height was good, acknowledging Pirates’ ability to hold you up.
“In doing that (being held up) we didn’t have a lot of ball in the first half,” he said.
The visitors led 26-nil at the break with Starr scoring in the first five minutes.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom, and Hoy was proud of the way they kept on fighting.
Richard Young was their leading light at fullback. He was a late switch to 15 when Ed Churchill withdrew and was dangerous all game from counter-attack.
He picked up the three points ahead of Sandy Cameron and Henry King.
