Wagga City make statement as CSU, Ag College and Tumut secure victories

The Boiled Lollies entered the game at 2-0 and were dominant against Waratahs as they ran out comfortable 69-29 winners.

Wagga City coach Rob Cleland revealed his side had a number of starting players miss the clash, so he was pleased they were able to claim such a strong victory.

"Yes we're very happy," Cleland said.

"We had a lot of players out today so the message before the game was just teamwork, try and pull together and defend basically.

"I think we did that pretty well especially in the first half there and the boys did exactly what was asked of them."

With so many starting players out of the side, Cleland believed their depth at the club was on full display in the dominant victory.

"We've got some pretty good depth," he said.

"The two's obviously played very well as well, but we've been developing a squad for the last three to four months.

"I think there's a few players that are ready just to step in at a moment's notice, so I think it worked out quite well."

Although the Boiled Lollies were very good on the offensive end, Cleland said their defence was something he was pretty impressed by in the win.

"The defence in the first half in particular, I think they scored one try in the first half there," he said.

"I think the 'Tahs barely had the ball for the first 30 minutes and that was on the back of our defence.

"We've been training defence all week and it showed on the field there."

After claiming such an impressive victory, Cleland admitted it was hard to single out players as standout performers.

"The hardest part of the job is trying to find out who the standout players were," he said.

"But I think the forward pack just in general, Darryl Hemopo was absolutely outstanding.

"So we had points for Darryl Hemopo and we had points for Rory Sheard and we had points for Noa Rabici.

"But the rest of the forward pack was outstanding as well, blokes like Mikaera Smylie and Tomasi (Vularua Nabuliwaqa) they were hard to beat.

"Then Tyson McLachlan just absolutely ran everything from the 10's, I think it was a great team effort and it's pretty hard to point people out.

"But I think the whole forward pack in particular played well and Tyson just absolutely generalled everybody from the 10-spot."

The Boiled Lollies now sit at 3-0 and Cleland said he's been pleased with how his side has started the season.

"We were a little bit underdone coming into the Tumut game," he said.

"We hadn't had any trials and we didn't really know what we were coming up against in terms of the other teams.

"We didn't really know where we sat in terms of our own structures and 3-0 at this point of the season is obviously pretty good.

"But we've got a fair few things to work on, we've got a few players that weren't in there today.

"We've got a lot to work on and we've got a lot of players to come back in, but 3-0 you can't complain about that can you."

Charles Sturt University claimed their first win of the year after defeating Griffith 53-21 while Ag College continued their undefeated start as they grabbed a 38-24 win over Leeton.

Tumut also secured their first victory of the year as they defeated Albury 30-22.