It was a scrappy and low-scoring affair but St Albert's College managed to ward off a brave Armidale Blues outfit on Saturday.
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Neither side could capitalise on opportunities in the physical affair.
All the points for the clash came in the opening half.
The Blues were the first to put points on the board through a penalty goal, their first of three first-half attempts.
The students scored the only try of the match with Chris Court diving over in the corner 15 minutes from half-time.
The sideline conversion was missed and at the end of the first 40 minutes the score was 5-3 in favour of Albies.
The second stanza was much of the same and the score didn't change.
In summing up his side's efforts, Albies' coach Niel van der Linde wasn't overly impressed with the quality.
"Not much went well at all," he said.
"It was very scrappy, it was very stop-start.
"We made a fair bunch of simple errors ourselves which is frustrating.
"We were hoping it would break apart at some point but our mistakes gave them a lot of momentum."
Both sides struggled with injuries and van der Linde is looking forward to some troops returning in two weeks.
"A week off now and we will re-group and get ready for Tamworth," he said.
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