Central North Rugby Round 9: Gunnedah beat Moree 40-21 to finish first round in third

Outgunned by Narrabri seven days earlier, the Red Devils made a statement with a 40-21 victory over Moree at Gunnedah on Saturday.

It is their sixth win and was all the sweeter from coach Dan Martin's perspective for the fact that they were missing a handful of regular first graders, including James Perrett, who has probably been their best this season, and half-back Steven Leuta.

They were a little bit scratchy early, the Bulls jumping on a turnover to score the first points.

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But after that Martin felt that they controlled the game; the pack pushing the Bulls pack around and laying a strong platform.

Up 19-14 at half-time, they really upped the ante in the second half, making a few tweaks to "make their (Bulls) forwards work harder".

Martin highlighted their lineout as one of the biggest differences to the previous week.

"The week before we weren't clinical," he said, counting three errors on attacking lineouts that led to tries for the Blue Boars.

"Yesterday we were more clinical in our lineout and got points from our lineout."

Tim McDermott was immense for them there and finished with a double.

Martin said five-eighth Marcus Hayne was also "very good" as was breakaway Ron Hobden.

Filling in again in the centres, he thought Jono Madden, who usually plays in the backrow, really stood up for them.

He got them some good go-forward and was strong in defence in that midfield channel.

"No-one got trough us there," he said.

After dropping back to third with the loss to the Blue Boars, the win saw them hold onto third.

The Blue Boars lead the way and are looking ominous after thrashing Barraba 74-10, Jydon Hill bagging a hat-trick and Alex Pay a double.

The other game was a much tighter affair, Quirindi just getting over Scone 27-22.

The competition takes a break next weekend for the Country Championships, which are being played in Tamworth.

TABLE: Narrabri 39, Walcha 36, Gunnedah 35, Tamworth 32, Inverell 29, Quirindi 26, Moree 21, Scone 12, Barraba 5.

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