The Monaro Colts, the championships' defending premiers hailing from the Canberra region, were physically superior to the Rams and their extra size made plenty of difference in the nine-try-to-three contest in hot conditions at Jock Colley Field.

In what was the first open-age Rams match to be played on home turf in a number of years, Ronayne felt the need to apologise to the fans for his side's performance but could only praise the effort of Monaro.

"It's very disappointing," Ronayne said.

"It's the first time we've had a home game in a long time and we've let them down.

"But full credit to those boys, they were a class better than us."

An already difficult challenge was made that bit harder on Sunday morning when coach Cameron Greenhalgh was forced to call around to fill his squad after COVID cases and injury hit the squad.

Forbes young gun Zeke Hartwig and Parkes prop Benny Cokanasiga were added to the team late on and while they held their own throughout contest, the writing was on the wall early for the hosts.

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Within the opening three minutes of the match the Rams gave away a penalty, conceded a line dropout and then knocked on and intercept attempt to give Monaro all the ball.

They didn't need any more of an invitation and after the forwards got rolling hulking centre Tavita Aroha-Tuinauvai powered his way across the line twice to set-up a 10-0 lead.

On 23 minutes the Colts crossed again after Tre Holten-Williams snagged an intercept from a Nick Greenhalgh pass and raced untouched for 80m.

The home crowd did have something to cheer about three minutes later when a lovely cut-out ball from Mitch Andrews put winger CJ Ralph over.

That proved to be as good as things got in the first 40 for the Rams, who didn't help themselves by making a number of errors, and Monaro second-rower Josh Baker crossed twice before the break to set-up a commanding 28-4 lead.

The Rams enjoyed their best period of the match immediately from the restart and were rewarded by tries for a stepping Corey Cox and Jackson Brien, who sprinted 80m to score after Andrews spilled a bomb backwards into his path.

However, any momentum Western had it disappeared when Brad McMillan knocked on from the kick-off and Monaro cruised for the rest of the contest.

Four more tries took the score past 50 and all but ended the Rams hopes of playing finals this season ahead of next weekend's round two meeting with the Greater Northern Tigers.

"At times we stuck it to them but there was too many silly mistakes," Ronayne said.

"We had two blokes pull out this morning and the two blokes we brought in did a good job but what killed us the most was the errors.

"We've got one more game left so we'll keep moving forward."

While it was a tough day out for the Rams, it was a day to remember for Monaro lock Darby Medlyn.

The Parkes junior was back at his home ground for the first time since his under 18s days and got through plenty of work in the convincing win.

There was plenty of support from the strong Parkes crowd for their former junior captain and that was appreciated out in the middle.

"It was awesome," Medlyn said post-game.

"It was a good game with these boys and there's a lot of good memories here for me.

"I haven't been here in awhile so there plenty of family up on the hill and I think a lot of the boys up there have been going from the night before so it was good support."

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