The Western Rams open age squad capped off a strong day for the Western Region in Tamworth over the weekend, dealing out a 38 - 8 beating to the Great Northern Tigers in order to ensure that the Rams went without a loss on Saturday.
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Held at John Simpson Oval in Tamworth, the Western Rams held their rivals to a solitary try in each half in order to author the most decisive score of the day's games.
While the contest only sat at 10 - 4 at the halftime break as both sides headed to the sheds, a slew of handling errors and some costly penalties for the Tigers saw the Rams capitalise and dominate across the back half.
Opens captain Alex Ronayne walked away happy with the result, having been targeting at least a 24 point gap in order to ensure the Rams would reach the finals.
"It just goes on for and against, so we needed to hit that to make finals, which we did, so it's pretty good for us," Ronayne said.
"We played some really good footy here today."
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The Rams, powered by an aggressive forward pack, wanted to improve on a slow start that had hobbled them last week.
"We knew we wanted to start faster this time out, we wanted to start early, and then getting into the back half we knuckled down and got away with it," Ronayne said.
"Last week we came out a bit slow at the start."
Some steadier hands, and a higher completion rate, ensured that the more aggressive start wasn't wasted or slowed by errors, something that Ronayne chalked up to the side's confidence.
"Last week we were going wide too much, but this time out we weren't rushing things and we were just moving the ball forward when we needed to," Ronayne said.
"We're a very small pack, so we're pretty mobile, we had to keep getting to the back of them and playing that ball quick."
Jackson Brien earned Ronayne's praise for his efforts on the right half of the field, scoring a try in the Rams' second half breakthrough.
"It was great to be a part of, I thought our halves were very good, they did very well all day, Jackson Brien out on the right centre was good too."
The Rams will now move forward into the finals, sitting right in second place on the ladder.