Scone succumbs to dominant Devils scrum

Previously trailing Scone on the Central North Rugby Union leaderboard, the win pins the Devils in outright fourth position and within sight of their top-five finish target for the first half of this season.

Devils co-coach Nik Hannaford said it was their set-pieces and their scrum in particular which got them over the line, quite literally, on Saturday.

“We pushed at least two, maybe three over for tries,” Hannaford said of the dominant Gunnedah scrum.

“That area has been pretty solid for us all year.”

Scone’s only points of the match came just minutes after kick-off.

“We were asleep at the start and they got a soft try on us,” he said. 

“But we got one back quickly.”

As the game wore on and the points started to mount, errors crept in.

“Our catching and passing was a bit  loose at times,” he said.

“I think we were trying to score off the first pass.”

Hannaford conceded Scone was perhaps not at its best on Saturday, due in part to the Scone Cup race day and a few others who had representative commitments, but  it was a points victory the club is taking all the same.

Best on ground for Gunnedah was Joe Gardiner who picked up the three points for the match, Cameron Kesby snared a well deserved two points and flying winger Keegan Lockery was awarded one point for his efforts.

The Devils reserve grade scooped the points on the weekend as well after Scone team forfeited due to lack of players.

“They only travelled with nine so had a bit of a scratch match instead,” Hannaford said.

Gunnedah have the unenviable task of tackling an undefeated Narrabri Boars pack on home turf this weekend.

The coach thought if his troops could match Narrabri in the forwards, they’re every chance against the competition front-runners.

But it’s in the backs where they will also need to hold their own, especially if on-again, off-again Narrabri star Brenton Cochrane pulls on a Boars jersey.

Then it’s on to Tamworth where the Devils will really need to stamp their authority.

“We need to beat Tamworth to be assured of a top-five finish,” he said.