The 21-10 win made it three in a row for the Rams and left the Brumbies with an uphill battle to make the top five, with Moree and Pirates in their next  two games.

Both were in fine fettle again on Saturday, with the Bulls thrashing Barraba 67-6 and Pirates dishing out similar treatment to Quirindi.

They ran though the Lions 102-5, with outside centre Jake Douglas bagging four tries and Conrad Starr and Sam Bowden three.

At Barraba, Ciaran O’Gorman, Matt Wannan and Sam Bacigalupo all crossed twice in the Bulls’ 11-try romp.

At Scone, the Rams gave their strongest indication yet that they are starting to find their form.

“It was a good physical  game –  the boys really turned up to play,” secretary and prop Sam Martin said.

They were first to post points, with a Simon Newton penalty putting them up 3-nil.

That looked liked being the only points of the first half but, almost on the whistle, Brumbies centre William Wardlaw crossed for a converted try to put the Brumbies ahead 7-3 at the break.

It did little to dent the Rams’ spirit and they came out and piled on 18 points in the second half.

“We had a really strong second half,” Martin said.

He said the hard work they’d done in the first half really came to fruition, the outside backs, particularly, causing the Brumbies headaches.

Richard Young was electric out wide and got the three points, with Newton picking up the two.

Jock Fortescue and Max Murray shared the one, with Will Fletcher getting the nod from the players.

The Brumbies knew what was at stake but couldn’t put it together.

“It was very embarrassing the way they played,” co-coach Duncan Pinfold said.

“We lacked direction, lacked patience.”

The aggression was there for periods, he said, but only periods.

“There wasn’t anything that worked for us,” he said.

About the only positive was that after being pushed backwards in the first scrum, by half-time they were winning some.

“To Walcha’s credit they played well,” Pinfold said.

The usual suspects figured in the points, with Lourens Le Grange earning the three, Graham Flanagahn the two and Murray Wilkinson the one and players’ player.