That is what Western Rams under 16s coach Kurt Hancock learned about his squad on Sunday as they overcame a physical Northern Tigers side in a trial at Denman.

With the Tigers one of the sides the Rams will face in this season's Andrew Johns Cup, both were keen to take bragging rights.

The Tigers muscled up in the first of four 20 minute quarters, but the Rams responded to come away with a seven tries to four victory.

"Our first quarter I thought we were still in holiday mode, we just missed the jump on the physicality, but the second quarter, once we got up to speed with that physicality, we got going," Hancock said.

"If there's one thing Northern Tigers do, they always play physical. I think our boys at the start got a bit of a shock, but they now know what the next level looks like as far as physicality goes.

"The game flowed better after that as well which I thought suited the boys too, I thought the boys were pretty good. We slowly got better as the game went on.

"All in all their effort was really good and their attitude. It was hot and it was challenging, so I was pretty pleased."

Just as Hancock was happy to see the way his side was able to raise its level of physicality to get on top of the Tigers, he was impressed with the flair they showed in attack.

Since naming his train-on squad in September, Hancock had been more focussed on improving fitness and defence rather than attacking patterns.

"We haven't done a great deal as far as a team goes, we've done a lot of combined sessions which have targeted core skill and fitness. So we haven't really put our systems into place so to speak," he said.

"We've only sort of worked on coming out of our own end and a bit of ruck defence, so for them to score seven tries, they can definitely play footy and they can move the ball around really well.

"I guess I identified that early in the piece and that's why we're really getting them to concentrate on coming out of their own end and kicking the ball well into corners.

"If we can do that, if we can build pressure, we can definitely put some points on, it's just getting 15-year-olds to understand that style of footy."

The way the Rams performed against the Tigers reflects the immense amount of emerging talents within the Western region.

Three members of Hancock's squad - Matari Kelly, Jace Baker, and Jonah Moss - were selected in the NSW Under 16s Koori team in December and showed their class in the trial.

But they were by no means the only players to impress. Jayden Innes was solid at fullback and Noah Sutcliffe was busy at hooker.

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Prop Hayden Whatman was one of the Rams who inspired his side to get physical and Bathurst forward Ethan Madden continued his progression.

"Ethan keeps improving each week, I think he was a little bit shy of a run on the weekend ... but there's nothing like a game for the big fellas like him," Hancock said.

"He's improved out of sight, he's one player who you probably wouldn't have thought would come as far as he has.

"It's been a long time since we've had 23 genuine players in the squad. We've also got some really good players in our spine, our nines, sevens, sixes and ones are all genuine players.

"At the moment I'm having a little bit of a headache finding out which combination works best, but it's a good headache to have."

The Rams will play another trial this coming Saturday at Cowra against another of its Andrew Johns Cup rivals Riverina.

Dubbo talent Rex Bassingthwaighte will return for the clash after a stint at Penrith and Hancock is keen to see what he adds to the squad.

"He's a real talent, he's been down to Panthers and trained down there, he's played a few trials and they've been impressed with him," he said.

"They're sending him back and he's going to do some Rams stuff."

After the trial against Riverina, the squad will be cut to 20. A camp at Burrendong will follow on the weekend of January 28-29 with the Andrew Johns Cup opener against Macarthur Wests Tigers to be played on February 5 at Bathurst's Carrington Park.

"The Burrendong camp, that's going to be the big one, we're able to have a couple of days, spend a lot of time together and get a lot of our systems put into place and structures," Hancock said.

"Normally when we've done it in the past like this, they tend to come out of that Burrendong camp a different footy side, knowing their roles, where they fit in the footy team, and how we want to play."

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