This weekend’s Easter break and next weekend’s bye will mean last year’s premiers will start their title defence with one game in the opening month.

Coach Chris Binge said it was a difficult start but the next fortnight provided an opportunity for players to rest niggling injuries before they could settle into a weekly routine.

A near-perfect, opening half an hour set-up the comfortable 42-point win.

“It was our first hit-out of the season so I’m pretty happy with it,” Binge said.

“Our first 30 minutes were clinical. Everything we trained for came off and we raced to 28-0 early.

“There’s still plenty of improvement, which is probably a little bit scary, but it’s true.”

Binge said there were also components of his sides’ performance he wasn’t happy about, and the next fortnight would provide the chance to fix them.

“Our second phase wasn’t the greatest and we started to play a bit ad-lib, which isn’t what I’m about, and we gave away a couple of penalties for silly infringements.”

Defensively the ‘Rangs were outstanding and it was their effort without the ball which pleased the coach.

“The most impressive aspect was our defence. Inverell didn’t score until the 35th minute and we had four regular first graders unavailable so a few under 18s and reserve graders had to back-up, and they all did well.”

It was a successful trip for the club with victories in all grades.