Armidale Blues have notched up another win in the New England Rugby season.
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Fresh off beating premiers St Albert’s College, the Blues continued their run with a triumph over 2017 grand finalists Robb College.
After a slow start, where the students led 8-6 at half-time, Blues coach Luke Stephen said his side re-grouped to finish strong and take the win 28-20.
“It is really shaping up week-in, week-out that you have to perform at your best if you want to get a result,” he said.
“For a large part of the first-half we weren't able to do that and put ourselves under a lot of pressure.
“We started really well. Our structure was perfect in the first 5-10 minutes but we went away from that a little bit in the middle part of the first-half. To the boys’ credit, they were able to slow things down and were able to play to the structure and the strength of the forward pack to really grind out a tough win.”
The Blues started the second-half firing to overtake Robb and stretch out to a 25-8 lead.
“Just before half-time we put together some good phases,” Stephen said.
“We kicked a penalty to go down 8-6 and that momentum we built that in that last five minutes really carried through to the second-half.
“From the whistle in the second-half we were able to score some points and build a lead we were able to defend.”
Stephen highlighted the performance of captain Jack Hodges. The Blues have the bye this Saturday with their third grade team taking on Glen Innes.