In front of the Inverell faithful, the Highlanders overturned a two point half-time deficit to secure their first win of the season and first over the Rams in more than seven years.

Combined with reserve grade's win, the 17-14 result also saw them pick up the Neil Porter Shield.

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The trophy is played for annually between the two sides in memory of Porter, who was tragically killed in a car accident on his way back to Walcha after a game in Inverell.

Highlanders coach Colin Mayes said the win was a fantastic result for the club, and was set up by their defence.

"I said before the game that I really wanted them to focus on defence and they really did that," he said.

"They (Walcha) had all the territory and all the possession and were on our line a few times."

But the Highlanders, who twice during the game were reduced to 14 players for 10 minutes, held the Rams to just two tries, the second coming in the final seconds of the game.

"They were just working for each other, and just trusting each other and stepping it up," Mayes said.

"Walcha were throwing everything at us."

Guilty against Gunnedah last week of standing back and letting the Red Devils run at them, on Saturday they got off the line and made their tackles.

Mayes singled out the loose forward trio of Harry Goddard, who was the man of the match, Cameron Patch and skipper Luther Robinson as really leading the way defensively, but said it was a "a good team effort on defence".

On the back of pushing the Red Devils, who was also semi-finalists two years ago, there is a real air of confidence among the playing group.

While they have "still got a long way to go" and "a lot of improvement", Mayes said with the "everyone has confidence about their abilities".

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