In the opening game of the Woodbridge Cup season, the Cowra Magpies showed their strength on Saturday night, clinching a dominating 42-4 victory over the Blayney Bears at Sid Kallas Oval.
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The win marked a memorable debut for both Cowra Magpies and Blayney Bears in the competition.
"This win is something we can look back on proudly," Coach Phil Ingram said.
"We've been chomping at the bit for round one for two months, now that it's been here and gone, we need to keep this consistency going.
"It was pleasing that we defended and held them out to four points but if we come up against the other sides and keep giving them good opportunities, we'll start to struggle to hold them out," he said.
The try scorers for Cowra were Daniel Hatch, Chris Wilson, Ricky Whitton, Luke Kinsey, and Stanley Rush, showcased their talent on the field, with Thomas Rose successfully converting all kicks.
"Our forwards really rolled forward and got us on the front foot," Ingram said.
"All the starting forwards and even the players that came off the bench brought that energy out onto the field.
"They really got us on the front foot to give our backs some space to do their work."
Highlighting the defence the Magpies had against the Bears, Ingram said, "the most pleasing part was our defence, Blayney kept coming at us and to hold them to four points was really pleasing".
With a strong community turnout cheering them on, the Magpies felt the support of their town behind them.
"There was a lot of support from the town and it was a good turnout from the Cowra community to get behind us," Ingram said.
"Hopefully we can keep that happening when we have home games."
Looking ahead to their next challenge against the Oberon Tigers, Ingram highlighted the hard road ahead.
"We've got a tough road trip ahead of us this weekend going up to Oberon," he said.
"Hopefully we can keep the confidence we got from the win with Blayney and take it up there."
Ingram also emphasised the need to address discipline issues.
"We've got to work a little bit on our discipline and giving out unwanted and silly penalties at the wrong times," he said.
Acknowledging it wasn't plain sailing on Saturday, Ingram said, "there was challenges in the game as well".
"When we gave Blayney the ball back we also gave them a penalty."
"We kept giving them chances to attack our line too many times," he said.
Despite the challenges, the Magpies demonstrated resilience, leaving Ingram proud of their efforts.
"We've been waiting for this for over two months and now it's all about playing the same footy and keeping that consistency and confidence," Ingram said.
