Walcha co-coach Barry Hoy believes the Rams aren’t too far away from the form that took them to last years grand final after they ground out a 21-13 win over Narrabri at Dangar Park on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
It was a stark contrast to their convincing 54-7 first round victory with the Rams only putting some distance on the home side in the final minute when Ed Cordingley crossed for his second try.
”It was pretty tense right to the end,” Hoy said.
Clinging to a 14-13 lead the Rams were given a scare when with under five minutes to go the Blue Boars were awarded a penalty – and chance to hit the front.
Fortunately for the Rams it missed.
Hoy noted it was a “pretty tough” shot. While it was in front it was about 40m out.
The win saw the Rams leapfrog the Blue Boars into fifth, and was also important for the way it was achieved with three of their four losses by eight points or less.
“It was good to knuckle down and to have to work right to the end and find a way to win the game,” Hoy said, hailing his sides scrambling defence.
“We scrambled pretty well in defence.”
READ MORE:
Still not quite playing with the consistency that saw them finish second last season, he said they played good football in patches on Saturday, although they were a bit guilty in the first half of trying to be “too extravagant”.
“Narrabri played territory football and kicked it deep and we tried to counter-attack from our quarter,” he said.
Hence his and Hyde Thomson’s message at half-time was to make sure they got the little things right.
“We just had to play basic football,” Hoy said.
Simon Newton’s boot was a significant factor in the second half allowing the Rams to, in Hoy’s view, dominate territory in the last 20 minutes.
He topped the points ahead of winger Dom Bower and breakaway Thor Crombie.
Pat Keen scored the Rams other try as he and Cordingley teamed up in the centres for the first time since round four.
Hoy expects to be without both next week to NSW Country duties, but felt having that bit more of a settled line-up gave the Rams a lot more confidence both in attack and defence.
“Barring Harry Locke playing fullback it was the backline that we had for the grand final last year,” he said.
Michael Cain scored Narrabri’s lone try, Callum Styles adding the extras to give them a 13-7 lead at half-time.
The Blue Boars were missing three of their key players in Matt Schwager, Matt McDonnell and Mitch Wheaton but played well, coach Dylan Duncan said.
For most of the game he thought they were the better team but a few wrong options cost them.
“We’re just finding a way to lose at the moment,” he said.
“We made five crucial errors and that led to their points.”
They had enough opportunities but couldn’t quite take them, Duncan paying credit to the Rams for stopping them.
Breakaway Jack Maunder put in a tireless effort and was adjudged the Blue Boars best ahead of centre Jacob Booby, Brummell brothers Pat and Beau sharing the one point.
WALCHA 21 (Ed Cordingley 2, Pat Keen tries, Simon Newon 3cons) d NARRABRI 13 (Michael Cain try, Callum Styles 2pens, con).
