One win from three trials may sound like an underwhelming pre-season, but Armidale Rams officials are brimming with confidence heading into the 2015 Group 19 season.
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The Rams have huge numbers on the books in all grades and president Terry Carson believes that is as a result of success in the previous couple of seasons.
“I think it comes from improving results in the last two years and the culture we have built here,” he said.
Armidale went down to Oxley Diggers and Glen Innes in their first two trials, before rebounding for a resounding win against Guyra last Friday night.
They also had impressive performances as the inaugural Armidale Nines competition in February.
“There were some good signs there,” Carson said.
“Especially player numbers, they are great across the board.
“We have 50 plus seniors, almost 30 juniors and 25 girls.”
The Diggers trial was especially pleasing for the Rams as their first grade side ran riot in the first half, before they were subbed off for reserve grade who leaked some late tries to go down 38-34.
“Our A grade squad was winning easily,” Carson said.
“[Oxley] scored all but one of their tries in the second half.”
A lopsided 38-20 scoreline against Glen Innes also didn’t convey the competitiveness of the game.
The Rams fielded 45 players throughout the game to give everyone a run and found it hard to get any continuity.
“The first half was a pretty competitive game of footy,” Carson said.
“The second half we were swapping players every two minutes.”
After fielding all their senior players in the first two trials, the Rams took their top 22 players to Guyra for their last trial and ran away big 44-6 winners.
“We were missing four of our starting forward pack, but we had what was pretty close to our A grade backline,” Carson said.
“We wanted to work on a few things up there and we did it well which was pleasing.”
The Rams open their season on April 11 against Tingha at Rugby League Park.