Epeli Vulaserau was a last-minute hero for Gunnedah as they snatched a thrilling opening round win over Walcha at Gunnedah Rugby Park on Saturday.
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The wingers' 80th minute effort and James Perrett's subsequent conversion, saw the Red Devils escape with the points 30-23.
It wasn't quite the clinical start to their minor premiership defence coach Dan Martin would have liked but he praised their fight and the composure they showed after the Rams had tied up the game at 23-all with three minutes to play.
"The boys just played very sensible football and kept it very tight and just went phase after phase after phase until we were able to get on the outside of their backs and go over in the corner," Martin said.
But they do, he pointed out, have "a lot of work to do".
"We were very rusty, very disorganised," he said.
"[And] Where we were pretty good last year we were pretty average in some of our defensive areas."
Granted it was only their first "proper team run", and they had a lot of new combinations, but there were a lot of things that he still expected they "should have done right" that they didn't.
That's not to take anything away from the Rams, who he said were very organised and will "challenge a lot of the top teams this year if not be one of the top teams themselves".
"But we'll take the win," Martin said.
"I'd rather win ugly than lose."
In what was a see-sawing contest, the Red Devils led 14-13 at half-time after the Rams had scored the first 13 points of the game. They then kicked out to a 10 point lead with just under 10 remaining, only for the Rams to score a converted try and penalty in the space of a few minutes and draw level.
Martin thought Tim Wilson, who started at hooker, played well for them but struggled beyond him.
Elsewhere Moree accounted for Inverell in a high-scoring affair 50-33.
