All Armidale Junior Rams teams travelled to Inverell on what tuned out to be a very wet Round 1 in Group 19.
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The under-8 Rams started the season with some attacking flair against Inverell on Saturday morning.
Cooper Petersen scored some barnstorming tries while Darrius James (two tries), Caden Carson and Jakyden Craigie zig-zagged their way through the defensive line.
All players defended well and held out some very effective attack by working together and moving up in a line.
Coach Grant Petersen said at training each week the team has been working on core skills and this is showing on the field.
Saturday saw the junior league tag team take the field for the first time in Rams history.
The atrocious weather conditions didn’t dampen the girls spirits, with all girls making the trip to play.
All of the girls played exceptionally well with Kavisha Smith, Destiny Ahoy, Makeesha Kennedy and Paige Dawson all scoring one try each.
Coach Wendy Petersen said the team worked well together in defence and attack, however 2016’s defending premiers proved to strong on the day, with the Rams going down 24 to 16.
The under-10's played well in extremely tough conditions but went down 30-12 in the end.
Try scorers were Bernie Dawson, Le-Bron and Jakyden Craigie.
Coach Andrew Dawson saved a special mention to Cooper Petersen and Jakyden Craigie for stepping up an age group.
The under 12's opened their season with the rain coming down throughout the game.
Coach Steve McCallum said the boys played well given the conditions.
It was a tight game with only three tries to Inverell with only one successful conversion, taking the the win over the Rams who scored two tries, also with one successful conversion.
Final score was 14-10.
This Saturday the boys play Glen Innes at Rugby League Park which will be a rematch for some players from last year’s successful grand final win.
Coach Jimmy Tanner said in extremely wet conditions the U14's boys played a tough game but were narrowly defeated 14-10. New recruits Billy Yeoman and Baily Wilson scoring a try each with Jacob Whitehill kicking one successful conversion.
The girls were all pretty nervous leading into the first game of the season.
Coach Jess Smith said there are a lot of first time players and new faces in the team, but they have trained really hard during pre-season and it certainly paid off.
All the girls stuck to their gameplan well and came home with a huge win and confidence boost.
Under-16 coaches Chet Davies and Brad Hague said their team played well in patches did show some good brand of football despite the terrible conditions that the game was played in.
Our turnover for the game was far too many which put the team on the back foot all the time, it put a lot of pressure on our defence.
All the forwards put in a huge effort and on a dry paddock the back line shows some promise.
It was a great team effort in defence despite the 30-4 scoreline and the team now looks forward to their next game.
All teams take on Glen Innes on home turf from 10am Saturday.