An under strength Rhinos outfit was beaten 50-19 by the Rams, the black and golds falling to fourth on the New Holland Agriculture Cup ladder in the process.

With the CYMS-Westside Group 11 derby being played on Saturday the Rhinos were without four regulars while Jake Scott and Cody Riley were also unavailable and star outside back Tyson Fuller missed out after suffering concussion last week.

“It was not ideal and some blokes had to back-up and play two games but they did well. Blayney was just way too good,” Rhinos captain Brett Austin said.

“We also had two yellow cards at the same time and that two-man overlap killed us but in the second half we improved so that was pleasing.”

Jeremy Kable and Casey Wallace both bagged doubles for the Rams while there was still a handful of positives for the Rhinos.

The Rams got out to a strong lead early on but the fact the Guy Turner-coached Dubbo outfit stuck to it was one of the morale-boosting facets of the game.

“We changed our lineout a bit and that was pretty impressive and we got a bit of a rolling maul and I scored from that so there was stuff like that that we hadn’t been doing,” Austin said.

“Our scrum was decent considering we were missing three from our forward pack but late in the game we dominated the scrum and got a penalty so it was good to see it got better as went on.”

The Rhinos face a resurgent CSU at Bathurst next and Austin said it’s an important clash for his side heading into the bye and then a game at Narromine, the home of the as-yet undefeated Gorillas.

“We probably need to win it,” Austin said of next weekend.

“We won two games in the first round and now we want to win three in the second round and then four in the third so we’ve got some momentum.”

The skipper added his side needs to rid itself of ill-discipline with some creeping back in on Saturday, just a week after the side received no cards in a win over Parkes.

Fuller is likely to return for the CSU clash, as are a number of players who missed Saturday’s game, while Englishman Ryan Sumner continues to adapt and got through some minutes in first grade after playing seconds at Blayney.

A number of other players who are new to the game are also improving and Austin singled out Brenton Morgan for impressing at flanker on Saturday having not played prior to this season.

A number of Scottish teenagers will also arrive at Dubbo this week and link up with the club and while Austin said he an his club won’t be putting too much expectation on them, it is a boost to the Rhinos’ depth.