The Rams travelled to Glen Innes needing a win to be a realistic chance of finishing second, but they stumbled in the second half on a wet surface at Mead Park.

Armidale fell behind early after Mone Loketi crossed for the Magpies.

A trademark barge over try to Rams hooker Jamie Smith and a stellar side-line conversion to Fred Waters levelled the scores at 6-all.

Cameron Mundy gave the Rams the lead on the 20 minute mark, but it was short lived as Adam McPhillips crossed for the Magpies six minutes later.

The nest 10 minutes was all one way traffic for Armidale as Smith scored his second and Shaun Cox pounced on a loose ball shortly after to give the Rams a 22-12 lead with only minutes remaining in the first half.

Glen Innes scored against the run of play right on half time to reduce the deficit to 22-18 at the break.

Captain-coach Clarrie Moran was masterful for the Rams in the first half.

His kicking game was outstanding as he buried the Magpies deep in their own half for the majority of the period.

This continued straight after half time, with Moran booting a 40-20 and Mitch Cooper crossed under the sticks after the quick tap restart.

The Rams were well on top at this point, but Cooper’s try would be the last points they would score as handling errors and ill-discipline crept into their game.

Glen Innes ran in five unanswered tries to finish the match.

Rams president Terry Carson was understandably frustrated with the Rams second half.

“The first half was really good,” he said.

“We held on to the ball and really tested Glen.

“We started to drop the ball and gave away too many penalties in the second half. The first half I was really happy with, but the last 20 we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot.”

Along with Moran, Smith was also outstanding as were Steve and Gary Quinlan, but Carson saved the majority of his praise for Moran.

“He was sensational,” Carson said.

“His kicking game was just outstanding.”