Moree and Barraba/Gywdir both converted half-time leads into wins on Saturday to kick off the second round in winning fashion and maintain their top four footing.
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Second-placed Moree overcame a second half wobble to beat Inverell 43-31 in Inverell, the Highlanders outscoring the Bulls 26-12 in the second half after trailing 31-5 at half-time.
Meanwhile at Barraba, five-eighth Paul Edwards and winger Jeremy York pursed doubles to lift the third-placed Rams to a 46-27 win over Scone in what centre Luke Smith described as a very tough game.
“Scone were a lot different team to what we played in the first round,” he said.
The Brumbies’ last round win over Gunnedah had the Rams expecting a big test up front and so it proved to be, the difference being on the edges.
That’s where Smith felt they beat them.
“The set pieces were pretty good and it was a fairly solid hit out in broken play,” he said.
“They had some big strong running forwards.”
In a funny way he said they were more of a handful than Pirates, noting that the Brumbies really disrupted them.
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The Rams opened up a 14-nil lead but as has been a familiar story let the Brumbies back into the game.
“It’s something we’re working on – once we got points or get into the game controlling it,” Smith said.
“We let our foot off or make a very basic handling error or something.”
They managed to nab a crucial try just before half-time for a 21-10 lead at the break, and scored again early in the second half to take some of the sting out of the Brumbies’ charge.
York was a constant threat outwide.
Second rower Tom Clear and hooker Ben Freeman also had very strong games, Freeman picking up the players player.
The Rams’ sixth win of the season there is a strong sense of belief.
“We’ve done the round now and know how everyone is,” Smith said.
BARRABA/GWYDIR 46 (Paul Edwards 2, Jeremy York 2, Will Robinson, Nick Sweeney, Lachlan Batten, Tom Mellor tries, Mellor 3cons) d SCONE 27 (James Capstick, Mitch Reid, Mike Casey, Josh Pickering, Caleb Taylor tries, James Roach con).
MOREE 43 (Jordan Cosh 2, Will Carrigan, Nathan Ebbett, Jack Maunder, Dan Sweeney, Mitchell Adams tries, Ben Williams 4cons) d INVERELL 31 (Jason Kennedy, Trent Hoscher, Nick Cumming, Jeremy Hallam, Casey Bowman tries, Dylan Lewis 3cons).
