Red Devils coach Jason Waerea was singing his sides’ defensive praises after they inflicted a third straight defeat on Walcha 27-19.

“We were pretty strong for 80 per cent of the game.

“They had a lot of ball in the second half but defensively it was the best I’ve seen them play,” Waerea said.

Ordinarily the amount of possession the Rams had in the second half as they looked to claw back a 22-7 deficit would have been cause for some nervous moments, but Waerea was never really worried. He was comfortable the way they were defending that they would be able to finish off the job.

“We were great in defence in and around the ruck play, which Walcha are so good at. Their pick and drive punches holes and their midfield swings off the back of that,” he said.

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All the things they spoke about like space, drift and talk, they did well.

He commented that he has never seen the Red Devils lift like they did for each other and remarked that at times it looked like everyone was trying to tackle everyone such was their eagerness to get off the line.

“I think they (Walcha) were caught off guard by our enthusiasm,” he said.

As much as he was impressed by their defence, Waerea couldn’t fault the Red Devils attack either.

“We were very smart. We played away from their midfield. We’d go the short side and then see if we could beat them in pods,” he said.

After a slow start cost them against Moree last week, one of the things the Red Devils had emphasised going into the game was starting well, which they did.

“We put on some quick points in the first half,” Waerea said.

The backs scored all of their tries with winger Oscar Hunt bagging double. Outside centre Ed Cordingley similarly crossed twice for the Rams.

It was understandably tough narrowing down their best but Waerea couldn’t go past the Brown brothers – Jeremy and Dan – on either side of the scrum.

“Defensively they were massive,” he said.

Dan picked up the three points, inside centre Jamie Mitchell the two and five-eighth Joe Norman the one.

The latter two were vital in shutting the Rams attack down before they could go wide.

The win was all the more satisfying given that they were without a handful of regular first graders.