The 2018 rugby season opener was set under a glorious autumn day in Walcha with the Narrabri Blue Boars travelling almost the same distance as the Rams to meet at John Oxley Oval.
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The ground was very well prepared with help from the council with some well timed water loads, downgrading the track from a firm concrete to a good 2.
It was great to see the full complement of fifteen players onto the field but they were up against the grand finalists from last year so it was going to be a tough battle out there.
As both sides took the field, there was some confusion over where the referee was but after confirmation it was an error in communication and president Andrew Crawford kicked off his workboots and popped on a high vis vest to take on the official duties.
Bolstered by some of the Walcha Roos, who had played Friday night, the Rams started brilliantly with hits coming from all corners, Lee Harrison, Jock Fortescue, Steve Eveleigh and Wally Davidson were making their presence felt.
Before long, Walcha turned defence into attack and after a break down the far touchline, Charlie Keen – the better looking and faster brother of Country and A Grade centre Patty – placed a grubber through the final line of Narrabri defence to be pounced on by Harley Cox for the games opening try.
Turns out Charlie Keen got all the kicking genetics too. Walcha scored again shortly after to head into the half time break leading 10-7.
With the Narrabri teams superior numbers, it was always going to be a tough second half and so it proved but not before some Narrabri players were inflicted with some heavy impact bruising.
The final score was 24-15 in a great sign of a strong season ahead for the Rams, particularly with some more players to return in the coming weeks.
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3 points went to skipper Jacob Sherrin, 2 points to Forbes and 1 to Bevan Wood with Lee Harrison taking out players player.
A Grade were lucky enough to have a ref to start the game, although it was questionable as to whether he was at the same standard as the reserve grade ref.
Walcha started well and through a delightful kick from Simon Newton, complete with turn that Shane Warne would be proud of, Ed Cordingley picked up and offloaded to Pat Keen to open the scoring for the Rams.
Narrabri managed to get the ball a few times through the first half but on every occasion, the Walcha defence was more than up to the task, regularly forcing mistakes and capitalising.
Simon Newton took the line on form 5 metres out and freed an arm to slip the ball back to Henry King, who scored the Rams second try.
Dom Bower took advantage of some poor passing from the Narrabri backs and intercepted to take the score to 21-0 – safe to say Dom’s first child hasn’t slowed him down.
The icing was on the cake of a very strong first half when Sam Martin crashed over from close range for the Rams to lead 28-0 at half time.
The second half started in much the same way with Walcha turning defence into attack through big defence and Simon Newton sliced straight through from a scrum early in the half before Pat Keen slipped through to score his second.
The game went a bit quiet for the middle part of the second half with the Rams unable to secure clean line-out ball, coupled with a few odd refereeing interpretations and Narrabri scored their only try through some lazy Walcha defence close to the ruck as the boys had switched off.
We had done enough to secure a very strong win though and Dom Bower put the exclamation mark on the game with a try down the crowd sideline, his third for the day.
3 points and players player went to Thor Crombie, who was always a threat with ball in hand and provided good service, 2 points to Patty Keen and 1 point each to the front row of Ross Fletcher, Dave Healey and Sam Martin, it was outstanding to see the scrum rolling forward against a big Narrabri pack.
Next week we take on Inverell at Inverell, followed by the grand final rematch against Pirates, likely at John Oxley again.
