NERU Round 6: Armidale outgun Tamworth 46-22 in John Roberts and Brodie Rigby's 100th first grade games

The pair both played their 100^th first grade game for the club and celebrated with a 46-22 triumph.

Roberts fittingly opened the scoring for the Blues, the outside centre running a great line onto a cut-out from skipper Jack Grant and straight through the Magpies midfield defence to put them ahead 5-nil four minutes in.

From there the Blues pretty much took control of the game, dominating territory and possession as the Magpies fell back into old habits, to lead 21-5 at half-time and push on for their best result of the season.

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"We didn't want to play in our own half, we wanted to keep the pressure on them," Grant said.

"And I suppose back our defence and put them in situations where they had to make the decisions and I think for most of it (the game) we did that well and luckily the pressure sort of got too much for them at times and we were able to turn it over."

Fullback Lachlan Donnelly extended the Blues' lead out to 12-nil after 12 minutes when he sold the dummy and slipped through. They continued to accumulate points through his boot to further tighten their grip on the game.

Rarely enjoying any sustained attack in their half in the first half - as much through their fumbling and mistakes as anything - the Magpies finally got something to stick in the final seconds of the half, Adam Wallace showing good strength in the tackle and reaching out to give them a lift heading into the break.

But any momentum from that was erased almost immediately in the second half with Johan Lubbe scoring virtually from the kick-off.

A barnstorming Harry Mills sparked a flicker of hope among the Magpies faithful of a comeback. But again the Blues were quick to respond and when lanky No.8 Tom Morgan, who was outstanding for the Blues, brushed off multiple defenders to score and extend their lead to 38-12 with just under 20 to play the sting went out of the contest.

The Blues' second straight win, it saw them jump to second on the table.

"It's good that the points are coming. That was always a factor for us," Grant said.

"Leaking 22 points today that's something to work on but the points are flowing now which is good."

A frustrated Magpies coach Andrew Jack said it wasn't good enough from his side.

They were terrible in the first half. It was a bit of a comedy of errors - missed tackles, knock-ons, penalties, miscued kicks, getting pushed off the ruck.

"They went back to their old ways of doing things," Jack said.

"For whatever, reason I don't know why."

"We had the game plan, we had it all sorted, [it] looked great on paper until the whistle blew."

One of the most frustrating things for him is the inconsistency.

"Last week the boys were switched on and they playing accordingly," Jack said.

"Had they played like they did last week this week it would have been a different score."

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