CNRU Round 13: Gunnedah beat Quirindi 46-17 to post eighth win for the season

Thanks to Narrabri's 36-all draw with Moree, the 46-17 win saw the Red Devils kick seven points clear of the second-placed Blue Boars.

But they know they will have to play a lot better in the coming weeks, the scoreline flattering them somewhat.

It was only really a 20 minute period of brilliance in the second half that saw the home side get on top, replacement winger Emori Waqavulagi's effort to slip through a handful of defenders followed by quick tries to Sam Crane, Matt Hannay and Junior Nasilivata as they opened up a 39-10 lead with just over 10 minutes remaining.

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But aside from that it was a real arm-wrestle, the Red Devils' illdiscipline - they lost three players to yellow cards - and impatience - pushing passes when they didn't need to - a cause of frustration for coach Dan Martin.

While he was happy to get what he described as "a very courageous win", he couldn't hide his disappointment at what he saw, acknowledging that they have "a lot of work" to do before they make the trip to Moree next Saturday.

"If we play like we did today against Moree at Moree we could be 25 down at half-time and that's a long way back at Moree once you give away a lead like that," he said.

"That being said I think we'll be better for this game."

They couldn't have started much better, busting tackles with seeming ease and opening up a 5-nil lead after five minutes with Hannay crossing for the first of his double.

Nasilivata and Elijah Sufia in the centres particularly were a real handful, consistently leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

But for one reason or another, credit also needs to go to the Lions' scrambling defence, they were unable to take advantage, the Lions putting together some good play themselves to hold the Red Devils to 5-3 until around 12 to play in the first half when in trying to get out of trouble they kicked straight to Nasilivata.

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The hulking outside centre wound up and swatted off a couple of defenders like flies before offloading to Crane to finish off in the corner.

You thought it might be the break they needed but the Lions hit back a few minutes later, half-back Lachlan Bradfield finding some space beside the ruck after they had punched the Red Devils line for about 20 phases to, with the conversion, tie up the scores at 10-all.

So often the man to provide the spark when his side needs it, Perrett produced a moment of magic in the final seconds, snaffling an intercept and racing away 70m to score to give the Red Devils the lead at the break.

But they were unable to kick-on in the second half and the score remained 17-10 until midway through the half when Waqavulagi showed what an excitement machine he is. He had almost scored with his first touch, but the try was called back for a forward pass.

Martin said the game was "a little hard" for them to get into.

"The consistency from our guys was stop-start," he said.

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"I think the early try our guys turned around and thought this is going to be easy and we'll start throwing the ball around."

The frustrating part of that for him was that they had spoken before the game that they "had to win the forward battle" and be moving forward before they went wide.

He did pay credit to the Lions.

"Quirindi played well. They really turned up and It was a proper arm-wrestle for the first half and large part of the second half until we got that bit of a roll-on," Martin said.

In the other game Inverell beat Walcha 41-27 to hold onto the Kookaburra Challenge Cup for another week.

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