CNRU Round 8: Gunnedah jump to top of the table with 45-10 win over Walcha

The Red Devils' 45-10 win saw them leapfrog the Blue Boars, on for and against, and assume top spot heading into the long weekend general bye.

Their first win at Walcha for a number of years - Martin couldn't remember the last time they got a win "up there" - it wasn't as easy as the 35 point margin might suggest with the Rams really taking it to the Red Devils in the first half.

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"Walcha came out and played typical good hard Walcha rugby; quick at the breakdown and moved the ball nicely," he said.

"We were in an arm wrestle for a big portion of the first half."

He said they had to "go through the grind" and be patient "for long periods".

Which they were, and were rewarded for towards the end of the half, running into two tries in the last 10 or so minutes for a 21-5 lead at half-time.

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"The last try on the bell in the first half really broke the Walcha boys and allowed us to get into our game plan," Martin said.

Guilty of not sticking to the game plan in the first 20 minutes, one of the most pleasing things from his perspective was the way they were able to adjust on the go.

"They're starting to get a good balance of understanding what's going wrong without me telling them," he said.

Above all though he was just happy to get a win, especially after what happened in the corresponding game last year. In what was probably their worst performance of the season they were hammered 50-7.

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The forwards really led the charge on Saturday with No.8 Will Burke topping the points ahead of second rower Tim McDermott with inside centre Elijah Sufia and prop Lachie McArthur sharing the one. Sufia got the nod from the players.

Martin also made mention of Tim Wilson, who played a full game of second grade and then another 50/60 minutes in the front row in first grade.

"Credit to him, that's a big shift in the front row," he said.

"Those Walcha front rowers are pretty good footballers too."

In Saturday's other first grade games, Inverell retained the Kookaburra Challenge Cup with a 59-3 win over Scone while Moree put on a show for Ladies Day, defeating Quirindi 41-14.

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