Steamers’ fullback James Devlin scored 19 points as the club maintained its unbeaten start with a 34-12 demolition of Griffith.
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Devlin was forced to play halfback in the opening game after two players were forced out, but he slayed the visitors with his skill.
“It’s his awareness of the game and his ability to read the play, to jump into the backline in attack when he likes, so his running lines are fantastic from the deep,” coach Paul Musarra said.
Devlin played first grade with Eastern Suburbs in the Sydney competition, before returning home.
The Steamers are blessed to have three players capable of filling a number of backline roles, with Richard Manion and Blake Le Cornu just as versatile.
“They can play either 10, 12, 13 or 15, they’re very good,” Musarra said.
“Rich Manion hasn’t played a lot of 10 for us, I’m moving him into the 12-13 channel.”
The Border outfit is looking to bounce back after finishing second bottom with only three wins.
“We’ve got a lot to improve on, we had a lot of penalties and a lot of handling errors early, so I think that was just pressure, but I was really happy with the performance,” Musarra said.
“I was really happy with our defence, that was number one, and number two some of the things we’re trying to put together in terms of attacking phases, we’re halfway there.”
Musarra says his team’s high penalty rate wasn’t necessarily a lack of discipline.
“We were probably a bit lazy with the offside line,” he said.
“We’ve been working on it and we’ve improved from the week before, but early in the season there’s going to be a lot of those scrappy penalties.”
Griffith had a 15-minute period in the second half when it fought back, posting a try, but generally the Steamers controlled play and possession.
Despite the fact the Steamers have won almost as many games as last year, the first-year coach said he’s around where he expected to be.
“Looking at the squad last year, I did expect to start off reasonably well,” he said.
“But in saying that we haven’t played the top three or four sides yet as well.
“We haven’t played Waratahs, Leeton, Tumut or Aggies yet, they’re going to be the four sides to compete with in the finals.”
The Steamers are home again on Saturday against Wagga Ag. College, so Musarra will soon know just how much improvement his group has made.
The “Aggies” were hammered 43-17 by Leeton, which is one of three undefeated teams, along with Waratahs.
The Wagga outfit toppled Tumut by 19 points, while Wagga City smashed the winless CSU in the other game, 48-nil.